Courageous Love

Spikenard plant

This was some week in the United States of America. 

New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker took to the floor of the Senate Monday night at 7pm and didn't stop speaking until after 8pm on Tuesday. He spoke with passion and pleading. And with an enormous amount of heart. 

And he spoke for many of us out here in the wilderness wondering, "How long, O Lord? How long must we suffer and endure this moment of fascism?"

A fascism that has resulted in the firing of hundreds of thousands of federal workers in Washington, DC, and across the country. 

People who keep up our national parks, test medicines, research cures to diseases, handle the phone calls from military veterans on suicide hotlines, staff the VA hospitals, map weather systems and warn of potentially dangeous storms, guide our airlines to safely land and take off from airports, administers Head Start programs....the list goes on and on. 

 In response to that...and the yo-yoing of the tariff wars...millions...including more than 1000 people in Tallahassee... poured into the streets on Saturday to join our voices to Cory Booker in crying out to God and all that is good...to please stop the madness.

What does this have to do with courageous love?

Everything!

Because the act of Mary using an abundance of nard oil to wash Jesus's feet was an act of courage given the criticism she received. 

And even more courageous if we think about her act being an embodiment of the type of love all of us are supposed to be practicing every day. 

At least that's my take. 

See what you think. 

Text: John 12: 1-8 

 

“Do you love me?”

That’s the question the milkman Tevye poses to his wife Golde in the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof.”

And if you’re familiar with that particular song, Golde’s answer to “Do you love me?” is listing out all the things she’s done: bore him three daughters…milked his cow…cooked…cleaned.

That’s all fine and good.

But what Tevye wanted to know is not all the things Golde does for him…but what does she feel for him after twenty-five years in an arranged marriage.

And by the end of the song…we understand that for Golde…what she does for him is her own way of saying, “Yes, I suppose I do love you.”

In our Gospel…we have Mary doing something that signifies her love for Jesus. He’s come to Bethany…to the home of Martha…Mary…and Lazarus.

In the chapter before this one…we have the story of Jesus’ sixth miracle in the Gospel of John when he raises Lazarus from the dead.

Martha is serving.

Lazarus is at the table.

And Mary enters with a pound of nard oil…which in today’s measurements comes to about twelve ounces.

Then…as is the case now…nard oil is not cheap.

It’s from a plant grown in remote parts of the Himalayas…so just a small amount of it is almost 30 dollars.

So…if you’re doing the math…yeah…in today’s money…that’s a really expensive footbath!

She’s using all of this oil…filling the whole house with the aroma…one that is a little woodsy…and earthy.

Not quite like being around someone who has washed themselves in patchouli…but the same idea of an aroma that is both sweet and strong.

Besides having a healing calming property…this is the same oil that was used to prepare a body for burial.

Is it any wonder then that Judas is angry.

Maybe he’s one of those people with a sensitivity to odors. He’s calculating the expense of this oil being poured freely on Jesus’ feet and this is just too much for him.

I’m going to sidestep the comment in John’s Gospel about Judas being a thief…and I have a good reason to be skeptical of that accusation.

Our evangelist John…and his community that he was writing for back in the 100 CE period…were in a fierce and bitter internal struggle.

You’re going to hear this from me a lot in these next couple of weeks…but I want us to always remember that all the characters…unless otherwise identified in the Gospels…are Jews.

And the Evangelist John was the leader of a community of Jews…as well as Gentiles…and even Samaritans… who had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

This put them in tension with their fellow Jews who did not believe the Messiah had come…and were getting angry and fearful that John’s faction was going to draw unwanted attention to them from the Roman Empire which had just destroyed the Jerusalem Temple for a second time.

This is an intra-family struggle.

A battle between parent and child.

And so John is making the claim that Judas is a crook.

For John…Judas becomes a stand in for this group of non-believers.

Judas is one of “those people.”  

In fact…this same story of a woman anointing Jesus happens in the other three Gospels.

But none of them place this woman at the house of Lazarus.

And in none of those accounts did the evangelists name Judas as the lone naysayer.

So, John has an agenda with his particular depiction of Judas.

Still…I think we can look at what’s happening here…and see both a glimpse of ourselves…as well as the amazing extravagant and irrepressible love of God.

We know Judas gets angry about what Mary is doing.

Why?

Was it simply because…as John has stated…that this was really expensive perfume and she was slathering it everywhere and it could have been sold to collect a handsome sum for the poor?

Was it because she was a woman who was doing something scandalous and out of line?

I mean, washing feet was one thing…but with nard oil?

And a woman washing and touching the feet of a man?!

Especially with her hair.

Or was it that Judas felt convicted because this Mary of Bethany… saw something in Jesus…knew something intuitively about his fate…even if she didn’t know exactly what was going to happen to him…and was so moved by her love and appreciation that she did something courageous and so over the top to demonstrate her love and devotion to him?

Did her unfettered love for Jesus make Judas uncomfortable about his own reservations about this rabbi he was following?

Throughout our various Gospels we have a picture that emerges of Judas.

He’s a revolutionary.

He was a zealot who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire.

And he was ready for Jesus to be the Messiah of his own making.

The same way we can be guilty of wanting a God made in our own image.

Judas was looking for the guy to lead an insurrection…just like so many others had been doing in those days.

But Jesus was not that sort of warrior.

He’s not one who believed that using brute force and weapons to fight would make the lives of those oppressed by the tyrannical leadership of the Empire any better.

Jesus was leading a movement…the Jesus movement…to get everyone back on board the Love train to God.

And this is what Mary has figured out.

Her act of taking this expensive and highly aromatic oil and using it like water to wash Jesus’s feet is her way of demonstrating her love.

Think about this for a moment:

Our feet take a real beating having to support our whole body.

And in the First Century…where one had to walk for miles and miles in sandals…the feet were definitely in need of some tenderness and love.

What an incredible act of generosity and kindness for Mary to care for Jesus’s feet in this way.

What insight she must have had…living under the thumb of the Empire…and knowing that Jesus was taking a huge risk in challenging people to refuse to give in to despair and to lean into that source of Love…and resist the power structure in a non-violent way.

She must have sensed the danger and the very real possibility that violence was on the horizon. Especially since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead on the Sabbath…in that way that Jesus kept always doing miraculous things on the Sabbath…and offending the status quo.

Mary’s act of taking something of such high monetary value…and so much of it…and simply spilling it all over Jesus’s feet is the same wreckless and wasteful behavior of a Father who throws a massive party for his ne’er do well son.

Or that sower who throws seeds everywhere…no matter where they land…instead of carefully tilling the ground and planting them.

Mary is showing us how to love as God would have us love: with extravagance.

Unbounded.

And without checking for credentials…straight A’s in school…or how much money is in the bank account.

God doesn’t care whether we check every box that we have going in our own heads that we think would make us worthy.

God’s love is freely offered to everyone.

Which is the sad state of Judas….and why the poor will always be with us.

Because too many who have abundance to give…refuse to let go…share their wealth.

Or they’ll give a small amount…while those with next to nothing contribute what they have…sometimes to their own detriment.

The poor will always be with us because greed is an ever-present reality…whether it’s financial greed…or the greed that makes us turn against one another in a manufactured culture war designed to dehumanize certain segments of the population…and divide up the Body of Christ.

As we approach this final week of Lent…I think there’s a question that’s laid before us:

If we say we love God…and if we call ourselves “followers of Jesus”…do we do it with a love that is joyous and without reservation…courageous like Mary…or is there a piece of ourselves that we hold back out of fear or out of greed…or out of a sense that we can’t or shouldn’t let go of too much?

In the Name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

Love is Our Super Power

 

Oh. My. God.

That's the only thing I could think after seeing clips of the Oval Office meeting between our president, vice president, and secretary of state...and Ukranian President Volodymr Zelensky. 

As one who grew up in a very Republican household...I was steeped in anti-communism and distrust of the Russians.

So to see so-called Republicans berating Zelensky for defending the freedom of his country for these three long years after a Russian invasion....

Oh. My. God. 

And what I realized about myself is that the more I see of this administration...the more they are pushing my anger button over and over and over. I can sense that I am falling headlong into that pit of hell called "Hate." 

And spending too much time in that pit leads to hardness of heart.

And hardness of heart leads to death.

Time to counteract that.

See what you think of this antidote that I offered to my congregation.

Text: Luke 9:28-43a

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There’s a common phrase that gets used in church circles: “Mountain top moments.”

Mountains in the Scriptures…as we see in today’s readings…are those places where big transformational things happen.

It’s those times when something so extraordinary happens that it takes our breath away.

These can be some of the most fleeting…and yet profound experiences when we feel almost a tingling sensation that says, “God is here.”

In those moments…we might want to respond as Peter does.

We want to preserve this…keep it…dwell in this space forever.

But there’s a reason these are called mountain top “moments” and not “mountain top forever and evers. Amen.”

Even for Jesus…this is not a time that he will get to remain in a state of wonder and bliss.

In fact for Jesus…this is probably not the most wonderous moment.

It was more likely a sobering awakening and understanding of what was to come.

I say that because of who shows up.

As Jesus is praying…he’s joined by Moses and Elijah…the symbols of the Law and the Prophets.  

They’re talking to him about “his departure, which he was about to achieve at Jerusalem.”

The Greek word in the text for “departure” is “exodus.”

And this is not merely some excursion.

This mountain top moment for Jesus is the time for him to prepare for the most difficult and demanding part of his ministry: his exodus…as in his crucifixion.

We don’t know what Moses and Elijah said to Jesus in this moment.

But it makes sense that if two figures were to come to Jesus in this time of prayer…these two would be the ones.

Biblical scholar Richard Swanson shared in a commentary about a conversation he had with a friend from the Lakota tribe. The Lakota talk about the circles of wisdom in life.

There are several of them.

Joni Mitchell fans might consider her song, “The Circle Game”…where the seasons go ‘round and ‘round as we are all on a carousel of time.

Children live on the outer most circle…touching and feeling and exploring the world as they learn.

And as they learn…they move in to the next circle of wisdom.

The ones on the innermost circle are the oldest…the elders.

This circle is closest to true divine wisdom.

 And for Jesus…as a Jewish man of the First Century…there can be no greater pillars of divine wisdom to appear in a moment of prayer than Moses and Elijah.

What did they want him to know?

Again…Luke doesn’t give us the details of what was said in this moment between the three of them.

But we can imagine that these two were giving him something of a spiritual pep talk.

Both Moses and Elijah faced trials and tribulations as leaders of Israel in their own times.

Moses took his people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt under an oppressive regime of Pharoah.

Elijah exposed King Ahab’s corruption of the people when he led them into following the false God Baal.

Jesus is now facing the same sort of situations.

If we remember from our earlier readings in this season of Epiphany…at the time that Jesus was presented at the Temple…two elders of the community…Simeon and Anna…both saw in this baby the promise of one who would deliver his people from the hardships and injustices of the Roman Empire.

But for Jesus…this is not the sort of revolutionary deliverance that involves weapons and war.

His is an effort to take down the oppressive “power over” and controlling systems of Rome…and disrupt that human lust for greed…and bring everyone to a place of living into and for God’s love.

God’s love…which has no asterisks or expiration date…no boundaries at all.

In prayer…the young man Jesus has moved closer to the inner circle…with Moses and Elijah…

And in this space…his true being and purpose is beginning to shine through.

As he converses in prayer…he’s growing brighter…shinier…filled with light.

Meanwhile…his good friends Peter…James and John…have been fighting to keep their eyes open.

Drowsiness…in the Bible…is often a sign that a person isn’t paying attention and letting other things distract them.

They’re awake enough to see this sight.

And Peter thinks this is a time to build booths…make that moment last forever.

Until the cloud descends and the voice thunders out:

“This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.”

No more Moses.

Elijah has been whisked away again.

Only Jesus is before them.

This “mountain top moment” for Peter…James and John left them speechless.

That’s a normal response to something so awe-inspiring…and other-worldly.

Such an encounter with the holy is the sort of thing that requires time and space to process it.

But this vision is now in their memory banks…and it will become important to them and to Jesus’ ultimate mission of spreading love…after his exodus at Jerusalem.

For now though…it’s time to go back into the valley.

And for Jesus…it’s clearly back to work encountering a man whose son needed healing from a demon.

Our modern medicine tells us that this boy likely was suffering from epileptic seizures…but for our Biblical ancestors…such convulsions were blamed on demons.

This story of this boy with a demon exists in both Matthew and Mark…and we hear how this poor desperate father sought help from the disciples…but it wasn’t working.

In Mark’s telling of the story…there’s more of an exchange between Jesus and this dad…which comes to a head with the father crying out, “I believe; help my unbelief.”

I’m really sorry that Luke left that detail out of his account…because it brings us full circle to the mountain top…and what I think is most useful for us in our current time.

Because that prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief” is such an honest plea.

It’s one that many of us can probably relate to…especially as we bear witness to things happening around us in the world.

It’s that unfiltered appeal…that willingness to drop any façade of being assured of our own strength to make things happen.

This is a case where the only thing that father could do is to turn everything over to God.

Through this interaction with this boy and his father…Jesus shows us that no demon we face is stronger than power of Love…if we will only allow ourselves to believe it…trust it…and live into it.

Jesus needed prayer to stay true to his mission and maintain his strength to meet the task before him.

Just as this father did…Jesus…the very human part of Jesus…in his mountain top moment…had turned himself over to God…and sought God’s help.

And God…through linking Jesus to the greatest prophets of the Jewish people…answered Jesus’ prayer…connecting to Jesus to his inner divine self…and it radiated from him.

Prayer is powerful.

We need prayer to stay true to the mission we have as followers of Jesus:

To love.

 That Love that Paul talks about in the First Letter to Corinthians…when he described this Love that is “patient…kind…bears all things…endures all things……is not rude or boastful…rejoices in the truth.”

That is the Love of God…which is in each of us.

Through prayer…we are embark on a journey to that inner circle of wisdom.

And in that place…we can connect to God…and give God the pathway to light that fire of Love within our hearts…helping us to shine Love back out into the world.

Love is the super power we have as followers of Jesus.

Unconditional love…and promises of health…healing…and hope…is a world vision worth our effort.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blessings and Curses: A Sermon for 6C Epiphany

 I swear, most weeks feel as though I am getting challenged by God to rise up to the challenge of following Jesus to the cross in more than a metaphorical way. That's life in the first month of this presidential administration. 

We're all living in this Hell together. And so I am also hoping that through the words given to me to speak it might motivate a few more people off the sidelines. 

Could that be you?

Texts: Jer. 17:5-10; Ps.1;  Luke 6:17-26

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            It can be easy when we hear stories from the scriptures that are so well-known to just kind of gloss over them.

Familiarity with something like today’s reading—the Beatitudes—is one where we hear it and think:

 “Yeah, yeah. Blessed are this group and that group.”

My guess is that most of us were listening and thinking of the other version of the Beatitudes—the one from Matthew’s Gospel—which is part of what is called “The Sermon on the Mount.”

But this reading is NOT that reading.

And this passage from Luke has some details that I think require us to slow down and pay attention to what our evangelist wants us to know about Jesus.

So let’s dig in here for a moment.

Unlike Matthew…Luke places Jesus not on a mountain…but on the plain…on the ground.

And not just on the ground.

Luke’s Jesus is looking up at his disciples before he begins to speak.

Instead of being elevated above them…Luke wants us to remember that Jesus is “with” the people.

Around his disciples is the crowd….all those folks who have come from miles and miles on foot…seeking to hear a word from him.

These are the lost…the lonely…the disenfranchised…the people with disabilities.

The ones the Empire is trying to crush like bugs.

This crowd is straining to hear what Jesus is saying to his ragamuffin group of followers.

So Jesus begins:

“Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.”

What?

It’s a blessing to live month to month trying to figure out how to make ends meet?

“Blessed are those who are hungry now for you will be filled.”

Seriously?!

We all know it’s a lot harder for a child to learn anything in school if they aren’t getting enough food to sustain their bodies.

Just these first two mentions of who is “blessed”…or the “fortunate ones” is just strange.

But then…Jesus is strange.

And he’s called the disciples to join him in this upside-down way of looking at things.

Is it virtuous to be poor?

To be hungry?

No…not really.

But this isn’t virtue signaling or just talk about material wealth.

This is about the Way of Love.

And the Way of Love is the ongoing effort to bring about a more just and fair society.

And that requires taking the conventional wisdom that says that wealth and prestige makes one great…and flips that idea on its head.

The Way of Love requires us to come together…be in relationship and not separate ourselves from each other…or even divorce ourselves from our own hearts and minds.

Most of all…this Way of Love… this blessed path of Jesus… demands that we not turn away from God.

Jesus is preparing his disciples….and anyone else willing to listen to him… that our call is to trust and lean into that Universal Source of Love…the Love that is of God…as our true inheritance.

Live it. Breathe it. And share it back with the world.

We are to look to God and feed our hearts…not our stomachs… with that Love.

That was his message in the Beatitudes then.

Today…Jesus is looking at you and me…the disciples of now…and saying, “Blessed are you.”

And with that blessing…comes the responsibility.

We are called to not look away…but to sit with and stand by those who weep…continue to make contact and connection to one another.

And as we watch the news each day…there are many who are weeping and in need of those who will be with them in this time of uncertainty.

It reminds me of some of the things that Mother Leeann Culbreath was sharing in the migration with dignity forum we held last week.

She asked us to give…in one sentence…a story of an immigrant that we have known in our own lives.

And everyone at that forum had a story they could share.

Everyone knew someone who had come to this country in search of a better life.

And…let’s be honest…all of us who are white and not claiming a heritage of one of the many indigenous tribes…we’re all here because our ancestors came from somewhere else.

Mother Leeann shared about her experiences…and the stories of immigrants who faced dangerous treks through areas known for gang violence and civil war to get to the United States.

Some of them have been waiting for months and years as the immigration courts slowly process thousands of asylum cases.

There are simply not enough judges to do the work

And now…these innocent people are living in fear.

Without the proper papers…they could be sent back to places where they face almost certain death.

These are just some of the people waiting and weeping.

And Jesus invites us to weep with them…until those tears can turn to joy.

Not through punishment…but through properly fixing the systems that have been broken for too long.

None of this work of love is about being popular.

In fact…for those who are the fortunate…the blessed…those who follow in the Way of Love are courting trouble from the forces that deal in fear.

That’s Jesus’s warning to us.

He’s telling his disciples…both then and now… to prepare to be hated for not going along with the status quo advocated by the powerful.

And yet…sticking to that Source of Love is the answer and the way to stay strong in the face of opposition.

I’m reminded of a quote I heard recently from the late Bishop Barbara Harris…who was one who leaned into the Love of God as she faced the challenges of being the first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion…and was the first black woman bishop to boot.

Bishop Harris said, “Remember that the power behind us (God) is greater than the challenges ahead of us.”

In the Beatitudes…Jesus is saying the same thing.

He’s drawing upon the words of the prophets such as Jeremiah…warning of the “woe” that comes to those cut themselves off from others…and by doing that…cut themselves off from God.

Pay attention to what Jeremiah says:

“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.”

Jeremiah’s words tell us what the curse is: separating one’s heart from the Love that is the Lord.

 

Jeremiah goes on:

“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.” (Jer.17:5-6a)

The ones who live their lives by the societal standards that rewards those with “power over” others have lost touch with God.

As Jesus puts it…there is woe coming to those who have full stomachs but are still greedy for more because their greed is separating them from the Way of Love.

Blessed are the ones who fix their hearts on God…share in bearing the burdens of life with others…

These are the people who will be like the trees…with deep roots…fed by the living waters.

The woes are for those who withhold compassion… mercy… and justice.

The blessings come to those who…as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote…stand in the shadow of the cross.

The Beatitudes are meant to prepare us for the hard work of Love that is before us…sharing that love with all…and not just the few who look like us…sound like us…or worship like us.

Are we ready to respond to a call to love…without any expectation of a reward?

Can we stand with Love amidst the crowd of hurting and broken people in our communities and shoulder some of their burden?

In other words: we will seek and serve Christ in all persons loving our neighbor as ourselves?

Hopefully we answer, I will…with God’s help.

I will trust in God.

I will look to Jesus as my guide through these trying times.

I will allow the Holy Spirit to work through me…and shine that light of love to those who are looking for it.

As our psalmist says:

“The Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked is doomed.” (Ps.1:6)

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.