What the heart wants: Aug 10

Year C, Pentecost 9                                   Luke 12:32-40                                

            The heart wants what it wants.  Have you heard that phrase? The origins are unclear.  Some people attribute it to Emily Dickinson but it’s just vague enough, that it’s impossible to know for sure.  Usually when it’s used, it’s referencing romantic love as if to indicate that we can’t control who we fall in love with.  But people also apply it to all kinds of things, seemingly to prove that we can’t control what we care about or where our hearts might lead us.  The author of the Gospel of Luke would have disagreed with this perspective. 

          Last Sunday Jesus talked about greed and possessions.  He said, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  Right after that text is one of my favorite passages which addresses anxiety and worry…which is relevant because often our preoccupation with stuff and money doesn’t come from greed as much as it comes from the fear of not having enough or not being secure.  We associate money and possessions with security and comfort.  There is good reason for that because money buys food and shelter, which are things that we all need.  The tricky part is finding that fuzzy and sometimes transparent line between need and want.  When does our anxiety about security turn into anxiety about how we keep all the things we really don’t need?

          Right after that text about anxiety and worry comes the text we heard today.  Jesus says: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” When we hear someone talk about their heart in this day and time, it’s usually associated with emotion or passion.  But in Biblical times, it would have been associated with your will and way of thinking---or as our opening collect said today: “the spirit to think and do those things that are right…”

These may be the author's new sneakers

          For so long, when I have heard this text, I have heard it from a church stewardship context.  If you can help people see how much they love the church---how much the church means to them, then they will give the church their time, talent and treasure.  But that’s out of order.  What Jesus is saying is that first comes the treasure and then the heart.  In other words, we can orient the direction of our hearts by how we allocate our treasure.  If we give to a cause that helps those who are in recovery, then we will orient our heart to those in recovery.  If we give our time and money to support the unhoused community, we will start caring more about the unhoused community.  If we buy a pair of sneakers because they are the right height for a certain pair of pants (I am just talking generally right now, this is not an example about me), then we might decide we need more pants to go with those super cute sneakers and possibly a 2^nd pair of those sneakers to keep at work…just in case.  Where we put our money and our time inevitably leads us to care more about those things…or in the case of possessions or money, we get preoccupied with those things.

          This idea that our actions can orient our heart is a challenging one because it means the onus is on us. It feels like a bit of pressure to me.  Yet there is also something really appealing about this—because it means that we can train our hearts to care about those people or causes that really matter.  Think about it, have you ever known someone who started working with children (or any vulnerable population) and then realized they cared less about that group?  Have you ever spent time in prayer or studying the Bible or (and this is a little risky for me to mention) worshipping in church and thought….well that was pointless?  When we put our time and our energy (and yes our money) into meaningful things, then we come out with more meaning and more purpose. 

          Remember what much of this chapter from Luke is about…anxiety and how we can be relieved of anxiety for worldly things.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” God wants to give you everything you need.  It’s God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom…not God’s duty, God’s good pleasure. 

But there is something we have to do.  “Sell your possessions, and give alms.  Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out…”  There is another place in the Gospel where Jesus tells a rich man to sell everything.  Jesus doesn’t say that here.  He says, “Get rid of some of it, so that you have enough to give to others…to give alms.”   Giving alms isn’t just about giving what is extra…it’s a display of solidarity with another group.  It’s a way to shift the focus away from you… to somewhere else. 

          It’s really easy in this world to get preoccupied about stupid stuff.  I would much rather read about the excesses of Jeff Bezos’ wedding then think about the children who are starving in so many parts of our world. It’s so much easier to think about just about anything else then what actually matters in our world and beyond.  Why train our hearts to care when we could simply sigh and say, “the heart wants what the heart wants…”?

          I know many of you here care deeply and put your time and energy into those matters. I have seen it from so many of you. It inspires me.  But it’s so easy to get distracted by the shiny baubles of life….the wants and desires that skilled marketers convince us are necessities.  “Do not be afraid little flock, for it’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

That is what we are here for.  That is what we are working for…the kingdom, the new world where God’s peace reigns…where no thief comes and no moth destroys.  In the meantime, we work to chip away at the greed and corruption, the hate and fear.  We focus on what lasts—the purse that doesn’t wear out.  The only thing that really lasts is God’s kingdom.  When I refer to God’s kingdom, it’s not just what comes in the next life, but what we create in the here and now.  When we chip away at the things that are rotten, we will get to the heart of it all and it will be treasure worth saving.

Conflicted about Prayer: July 27

Year C, Pentecost 7                                             Luke 11:1-13                                                    

For most of my life, I have been someone who has depended heavily on prayer, as a source of comfort.  In the darkest times of my life, I found comfort knowing that God was there with me.  This probably doesn’t surprise you given my profession.  However, when I mysteriously contracted MRSA and found myself in the ICU in septic shock, I could not pray.  I tried the first day or two and then I stopped.  I felt something in my spirit break and what really scared me was that I didn’t care. I wasn’t angry at God. I just stopped caring about God.

         I called my friend who was also an Episcopal priest and had part of a lung removed because of lung cancer.  I asked her, “How did you pray in a place like this?” After a bit of waffling, she admitted she had not been able to pray either.  We both had the Book of Common Prayer with us, which is full of beautiful and eloquent prayers…but none of those prayers seemed right to us. The prayers that we had prayed for others felt hollow as we lay in the hospital bed.  So we wrote a book full of prayers that we felt we could have used while we were hospitalized.  When we started the book, my friend was in remission.  When the book was published, she was dying. She took the book with her when she was hospitalized for the final time. She told me it brought her comfort.  It helped her with her relationship with God.  But in the end, she still died.

Despite the fact that I should be an expert in prayer, when I read the Gospel for today, I thought, oh no.  Not prayer. I have a lot of conflicting feelings about prayer. The beginning of the text has Jesus praying. Of all the gospels, Luke puts the most emphasis on Jesus’ prayer life.  There are several examples of Jesus not only praying with his disciples, but also retreating to a private place to pray. If you were to read the first and last chapters of the Gospel of Luke, you will see that the Gospel begins and ends with people praying.  Sometimes we know what Jesus was praying for, but often we don’t.  For Luke, the act of praying and communicating was what was really important.

The prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples is beautiful in its simplicity.  He teaches his disciples to ask for three things.  The first two are nourishment and forgiveness.  The last request is a wee bit confusing.  “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” Most Bible translations say, “Lead us not into temptation.” When we say the Lord’s prayer during our service, we use that phrase rather than “do not bring us to the time of trial”.  I believe we are being encouraged to pray that God will help us handle the challenges of life.  We know we can’t avoid them entirely (that would be my preference), but we can lean on God during those times. 

This Gospel text would have been a lot more palatable if it could have just ended there.  Jesus then moves into a parable about a man knocking on his neighbor’s door at midnight looking for some bread because he has some last minute houseguests.  This all sounds wild to us because I would never knock on a neighbor’s door at midnight demanding bread.

But we have to remember this was a different time and place. They didn’t have hotels and airbnbs.  When people were traveling, they would often stop by unannounced expecting food and shelter.  Hospitality was important.  If one didn’t provide hospitality, that would shame them and possibly the whole village.  So it was also normal to expect your neighbor to help provide for the house guest, even at midnight.  The person who was being unreasonable in this story was not the guy knocking on the door, but the man who was refusing to answer.  Yet eventually, he relented, either because of the neighbor’s persistence or because he didn’t want to be shamed. 

The reason I find this parable problematic is that it seems to indicate that if we just ask for things over and over again, then God will eventually relent and grant our petition.  I’ve actually tried that. It didn’t work. In the end, it just left me extremely frustrated and disappointed.  I would never tell you not to pray for a specific thing, but I believe the time when prayer can feel the most frustrating is when we focus on the outcome.  I prayed a lot for my friend who died of cancer.  I prayed that she would live, but I also prayed for strength and peace. I knew that God was with her in the end.

Eugene Peterson wrote that “Prayers are tools, but with this clarification: Prayers are not tools for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.”  Prayer cannot be an order we give to God. God is not a short order cook. Prayer is the way that we deepen our relationship with God so that when we face the time of trial or the time of temptation, we will have a relationship with God that will help carry us through.

There are times in my life, even as a minister when I have been angry with God. There have been times when I even stopped caring.  I am not proud of that time, but I share it with you because I want you to know that even when we give up on God, give up on prayer, God never gives up on us.  If you feel like you are talking to God and God is not responding…consider this. The fact that you are talking to God, means that God has already spoken to you in some way.  Because otherwise you would not be moved to talk to God at all.  God spoke at your birth. God speaks with every breath you take. God speaks with the sunrises and the sunsets.  God has never stopped speaking.

The last line of our reading is: “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirt to those who ask him!” Jesus never guaranteed outcomes.  Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit…which is sometimes described as an advocate or comforter.  Perhaps our expectations of God are too narrow. God has provided more than we could ever desire and the more we open our hearts to God, the more we will feel God’s presence. Prayer is a tool for being and becoming.   We don’t come to church because we have reached perfection or because we have figured it all out.  We don’t worship God because we never question or doubt. We do these things because we have not yet become who God has called us to be and we want  to be that person.

            Jesus told his disciples, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Jesus never told them that they will receive what they were asking for or find exactly what they were looking for.  He just promises that we will receive. We will find. The door will be openned. We will become who God has called us to be.

What is Enough?: July 20

 Year C, Pentecost 6                                                                Luke 10:38-42                            In the early 1970s, two Princeton behavioral scientists were interested in studying the psychology of prosocial behavior—which is why people do good things for others. They thought who better to take part in such a study then Princeton Seminary students, many of whom were preparing to be pastors. The intent of the study was to determine whether it would be people’s innate qualities that lead to kindness or situational factors.  They brought in a bunch of seminary students and asked them to fill out surveys that would discern why they were going into ministry, was it because they wanted to help people or was it something else.  Then the participants were told that they needed to prepare a brief talk about the Good Samaritan, which we heard last week. 

Participants were all told that they needed to walk to a nearby building to meet up with another member of the team where they would give their sermon. They then were given one of three conditions. They either were told that they: A. had plenty of time, and were early, B. were on-time, but should head over now so as not to be late. C. were running late, and needed to hurry.   Then the researchers put someone in their path in need of help.  The person was in a narrow passage, which meant the student had to step over the person to get to where they needed to go. 

Do you want to know what the students did? The majority who were early stopped to help.  Only half who were on time stopped to help.  And of those who were late, only 10% stopped to help. They were on their way to preach about the Good Samaritan!  It turned out their willingness to help had little to do with an innate quality, but a lot to do with how much time they thought they had.            

                Now you might be wondering why I am talking about the Good Samaritan when that was last week’s reading.  Today’s reading is about Martha and Mary.  It has nothing to do with the Good Samaritan.  That’s not true, because in the Gospel of Luke, the story of the Good Samaritan comes right before the story of Martha and Mary. The last sentence in the Good Samaritan is, “Go and do likewise.” Then we come right to today’s reading.

The author of the Gospel of Luke was intentional about how stories were grouped, which is why it’s always important to look at context when you are reading a specific passage.  The reading that we will hear next week is Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray using the Lord’s Prayer.  But before we put that all together, let’s look at Martha and Mary.

                Unfortunately this story has been interpreted in such a way as to create two basic archetypes for women.  Are you a Martha or are you a Mary?  Martha is the busy one always doing the work that needs to be done, the woman serving in 100 different ways, very busy but also underappreciated.  Mary is harder to characterize.  Presumably she is the one doing all the Bible studies, reading everything she can, maybe not cooking a healthy meal every night but still making sure no one starves.  But really we know very little of these women.  This is the only time Martha appears in the Gospel of Luke. There are several Mary’s in Luke, but it’s possible this Mary is only in this text, which means we know very little about either of them.

                One of the interesting things about Martha that we can glean just from this text, is that there is no mention of a husband, or any man taking care of her, which would have been unusual.  The Gospel says that Martha welcomed Jesus into her home.  If she was married, or living with her parents, Luke would have mentioned the man’s name, not her own.  She was an independent woman---not unheard of at this time, but also atypical.

At this point, Jesus would have been fairly well known in certain areas, and it was  a big deal to have him in one’s home. Is it really any wonder that Martha would be “worried and distracted by many things?”  Clearly Mary wasn’t helping her with the actual serving.  It’s appropriate that she would be frustrated by her sister just sitting at his feet and listening.

                Yet at the same time, it would seem that Jesus favors Mary’s demeanor over Martha’s. He says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” This has led many to assume that Jesus was saying that Mary’s way of being was a better way of being, which is why this is an unpopular reading with the many people who identify with Martha. After all, Martha was the host and she had to  make sure that her guest was well cared for. 

                Is Jesus saying that he only wants people who listen and study his word to be his followers?  If so, what does that say about all the people who do the work and care for the people who need to be cared for?  Remember what came right before this story…the story of the Good Samaritan.  The last line was, “Go and do likewise.” There are times when action is required, like in the story of the Good Samaritan.  There are also times when we need to stop and listen. 

We don’t know what was going on with Martha but Jesus said that she was worried and distracted by many things…which means it was a little more than just her doing the basic things that were needed to care for her guests.  This was Jesus who was visiting.  He would have been fine with some bread and water.  But she was probably bustling around making sure everything looked nice, maybe providing more food than was necessary.  I know that happens when I have people over. I spend way too much time stressing over how things looks, worrying if there is enough food, if there is too much food, if it’s the right food.

                I think when we are in that headspace of making sure that things are just right, when we get preoccupied with the things that aren’t important, then we tend to miss what is really needed.  Those Princeton Seminary students who didn’t help the person in need weren’t cold hearted people.  They just had somewhere they had to be.  They were stressed about getting somewhere on time. They were probably so preoccupied with their own importance….the importance of sharing a sermon on the Good Samaritan, that they stepped over a person in need. 

                We don’t know how long Mary and Martha had to spend with Jesus, but my guess was there wasn’t a lot of time.  Jesus rarely stayed anywhere for more than a few days.  At this point, he probably only had a few more months before his crucifixion.  He didn’t care what kind of table Martha was setting….he needed people to hear his words.  He was trying to raise up disciples who could share his words when he was gone.  Perhaps Mary was a slacker who never helped.  However, I think the more likely answer was that she understood how special this time with Jesus was.  She sensed his urgency and knew that she had to absorb as much as she could with the little time they had with Jesus.

                Martha would have sensed this as well, if she had stopped to listen. But she was too preoccupied with her own business that she convinced herself she simply couldn’t stop.  She didn’t have time to stop and listen and to make it worse, she resented anyone else who did.

                When Jesus said, “There is need only of one thing” some commentators think that Jesus was literally talking about the food. Jesus was telling Martha, “I don’t need three courses…I just need one thing. Don’t waste your time with all these other things that you think I need.” So often we assume what others need, rather than just asking.

Consider all the times you have just done a little more than you had to do….but at the time, you just had to do all the things.  But you didn’t…did you? It’s so easy to convince ourselves that everything we do is so important that we don’t have time for compassion for the stranger.  We don’t have time to worship or pray. We don’t have time read the Bible.  Even as a minister, it’s so easy to get in that head space.  So please don’t feel bad if that is what you are experiencing. 

                If you look at the story of the Good Samaritan, Martha and Mary and then Jesus teaching his disciples to pray…what you will see is Jesus helping us with our priorities.  There are times when we have to act, when we need to help others and sometimes ourselves. We have to act.   There are times when we have to stop doing and start listening. We have to learn and listen. Then there are times when we need to pray and communicate with God.  Jesus isn’t saying that there is just one way we are supposed to be.  But he is saying that there is a time when we need to listen and a time when we need to act and the way we can figure that all out…is through prayer and contemplation.  

The good news is this…if you are here, or listening online, that you means you have set aside time for prayer and listening.  If you find yourself harried and just wondering how it will all get done….If you think your worth is determine by your work… I hope you can take a moment and tell yourself that all the stuff you are doing… is enough.  You are enough.

You can read more about the Princeton study here: My Favorite Psychology Study | Psychology Today

When Progress Doesn't Feel Like Progress: July 6

 Year C, Pentecost 4                                                             Galatians 6:7-16                                                                                                                

            As you will see noted in our bulletin and have heard many times if you are a member here at Christ Church—the vestry of Christ Church voted to remove the prayers for the king and his family from the prayers in our worship service.  They made that decision on July 4^th, 1776.   In 1776, Christ Church was a part of the Church of England. Our clergy were ordained in England as all Church of England clergy were­—by Bishops of the Church of England. Therefore, there was deep connection between the clergy here and the leaders in England.

Today, when Episcopal clergy are ordained, we take certain vows, kind of like a marriage.  In this day and age, we only vow to respect the authority of the bishop, not anyone in government.  However, starting in the 1600s and continuing to 1787, men who wanted to be ordained in the Church of England had to take an Oath of Allegiance where they acknowledged the King of England as the supreme governor of the church in all spiritual and temporal matters. 

This became a problem for all the Church of England clergy who were living in the colonies at the time of the revolution.  Where did their loyalties lie? The rector of Christ Church at the time was Jacob Duche and he decided (along with the vestry ) to align Christ Church with the patriots and stop praying for the king and his family during worship. It was a bold move (although a necessary move given who attended the church at the time.) It’s a great story and one we tell often, which gives credence to our tag line—a church with a revolutionary spirit.  The part of the story that we don’t often tell is that a year after this momentous action, the British occupied Philadelphia and we added the prayers for the king back in.  Sometimes progress is not as linear as we would like.  Sometimes progress, looks a lot like survival.

            This is our third Sunday reading from the Book of Galatians.  Chapter 6 focuses on what it is to live in a community, specifically a Christian community.  This will shock you all, but church has always had conflict, primarily because it’s made up of humans who are trying to understand God’s will and often disagreeing on what that looks like. Paul (the author of Galatians) had visited the community of Galatia and formed a bond with them as he was recovering from an injury.  He introduced them to life with Jesus, life as a new creation.  He had taught them that the most important law was to love your neighbor as yourself. 

Yet Paul had to move on as there were more people to share the Gospel with. He could not stay with the Galatians forever. It would seem that after he left, others moved in and told the Galatians that if they wanted to be real followers of Christ, the men had to be circumcised. Many were convinced that they had to follow the Jewish law to be Christians. That seems counterintuitive to us now, but at the time, it probably made a lot of sense. Jesus was after all…Jewish. This wasn’t an unusual belief at the time.  Even so, Paul was ticked off because they should have known better. He had been with them, sharing his wisdom.  He had told them that they didn’t have to keep all of those laws.

            So when he heard that they were not following his words, but the words of another, he was frustrated. In the beginning of his letter he wrote, ^“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—  not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Of course the community of Galatia wasn’t the only community that had fallen away from Paul’s message, but I am sure it was frustrating to him, having given so much, risked so much—only to see people who he had ministered to, be so easily corrupted by other erroneous messages.  Progress wasn’t linear then either. 

Today we heard from the conclusion of Galatians.  Paul wrote, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all…”  Paul’s letters were often a combination of admonishment and encouragement.  His letter to the Galatians is no different.  While he was clearly frustrated with the community, he understood that following Jesus was not an easy calling.  He knew that there would be times when even leaders like himself would wonder if this Gospel message was ever really going to stick.  After all, Paul knew the Hebrew Scriptures.  He knew what it had been like for God and the people of God…ever since the beginning of creation.  God would shower humans with love and compassion and they would turn away from God, again and again. William Sloane Coffin referred to this cycle as “God’s eternal lover’s quarrel with the entire world.” 

Yet Paul also knew that God’s love was more powerful than any human resistance to that love. Paul had faith not only in God, but in the people of God.  In some ways I feel a little ambivalent about this text. Most of the time, I find it encouraging. But sometimes when I read this I think— but I am weary. I am so weary of it all.  I think that most of us are weary in one way or another. Maybe it is something going on in our own lives.  Maybe it’s the state of our nation. Maybe all of the above. We are weary.

 Paul never said that we can’t be weary. He said, “Let us not grow weary of doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.”  There is no doubt that doing what is right is exhausting. (Sometimes just avoiding doing the wrong thing is exhausting.) Maybe we have been doing the right thing for a long time and we aren’t seeing the changes we want.  Perhaps it even seems like things are getting worse rather than better.  Any of you feeling that way?

That’s when we have to play the long game.  Paul said that we will reap at harvest time.  Some people think that harvest time means the end of our life or even the end of the world.  I am not really sure.  But what I know is that harvest time always comes, but rarely when we want or expect it.  Progress isn’t any more linear today than it was 250 years ago or 2000 years ago.

You might note that we don’t pray for the King of England anymore. We removed those prayers, then put them back in again. Then we removed them again for good.  Our reactor, who was the first chaplain of the continental congress ended up coming out against the independence of our nation and left the church and the country in disgrace.  Yet change still happened. Almost 250 years later, we are still an independent nation, arguing about the ideals we were founded on.  While it seems that we may have backslid a little, we have made tremendous progress since the Declaration of Independence was adopted.  We will continue to make progress, as long as we don’t have give up…as long as our response to weariness isn’t desolation, but reliance on the God who created us, loved us and continues to be with us in the darkest of times.  It’s ok to be tired, frustrated, maybe even a little angry, but we can’t give up.

What Freedom Really Means: June 29

Year C, Pentecost 3                                   Galatians 5:1, 13-25                                                                    

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” We all recognize these words.  It comes from the prologue of our Declaration of Independence which we celebrate on July 4^th---which we will formally recognize next Sunday.  Normally when we think of July 4^th, we think of freedom.  That is what we are celebrating, right? Freedom? Interestingly, the word freedom never appears in the Declaration of Independence.  But there is liberty, which is just like freedom.  Its right there—listed as one of our unalienable rights.  
   

We hear the word “freedom” a lot when we talk about our nation.  But it’s astonishing how differently we all interpret that word.  The apostle Paul used that word frequently in his writings.  But he used it in much different ways than most of use it now.  Paul wrote, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” 

The dictionary defines freedom as: “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.”  That was definitely not what Paul was describing. Paul didn’t believe that our freedom meant we could live a life without restraint.  He believed that we are free, but only if we find freedom in Christ.  Living in the Spirit of Christ gives us freedom, but it also requires that we become servants to God and even servants to one another.  In being free, we are bound to serve God.  If you are a little confused right now, that is ok, Paul can often be a little confusing.

One of the fascinating things about the New Testament and Jesus’ message was that everything we once considered true was turned upside down. It wasn’t that things we considered true were suddenly untrue, it was just different. For instance, Jesus said that the first should be last and the last should be first. Jesus was a king, but his crown was made of thorns and his throne was the cross. Death was not a defeat for Jesus, because he was victorious over death.  It was a paradigm shift. Jesus taught, a completely different way of thinking and being. One of those things he taught was the importance of being a servant, no matter how important you may be. He said that the way we treat the least of these is the way we treat God.

For the Jewish people, being slaves was something that was very much a part of their story.  God had led them out of bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.  That was and is a big part of their narrative. And the Gentiles would have known and understood slavery as well.  That practice was alive and well at the time. Therefore when Paul spoke about slavery--that was not a foreign concept to the people he was talking to. I discussed this a bit last week, how slavery in the ancient world was different than it was in our nation.

Yet, Paul was talking about a different kind of slavery entirely.  It is not forced submission.  One person or group does not forcefully take control of another. For Paul it means that we willingly submit to God, and to one another.  It was and is a completely different way of thinking.  

In talking about freedom, Paul reminded these new Christians of Galatia that freedom was not supposed to be license for self indulgence.  Freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that you can just do whatever you want.  It means that you are free from sin, free from laws that tell you how to be holy.  However there was one law that Paul and Jesus chose to emphasize: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In accepting this freedom in Christ, we also accept responsibility for one another.  It is a communal freedom rather than an individual freedom. Individual freedom is what we normally emphasize when we talk about it in the context of our nation.

I believe that our nation would be living more authentically as a free nation if we were free for one another, rather than in spite of one another---if we felt some obligation to serve the common good rather than serve our own self interests.  You might say, well that is not what American freedom is supposed to be. That’s Christian freedom which is a totally different thing. I would have agreed with you before I wrote this sermon.  While preparing for this sermon, I read the Declaration of Independence, all of it, not just that first part that is always quoted. The last line reads: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

“We mutually pledge to each other…” Huh, sounds a bit like Paul, doesn’t it? Now, I am no scholar of the Declaration of Independence, but it seems to me that the founders of this country, understood what would make our country truly free, and that is pledging ourselves to one another.  We declared independence from Britain, not from one another.  And even if I am wrong about that, I think we can all agree that when we see greatness in our county, it is when we serve one another. 

There is a reason why the military, the police, and the firefighters are often associated with patriotism….it’s because they serve. It’s because they risk their lives to help other people.  One of my most vivid memories from the days after 9-11 was trying to give blood at the local blood bank. The line was around the block.  People wanted to give something, do something.  At the heart of this nation is not just patriotism, but the kind of freedom that Paul described.

            Paul wrote, “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” Right now in our nation, we are biting and devouring one another.  And you know what, Paul was right. It feels as though we are consumed by one another---despite our desperate attempts to distinguish ourselves and separate ourselves, we are consumed.  We are not free.  We think that the might of our nation depends on our ability to protect ourselves and separate ourselves, but our might is determined by our willingness to serve one another, or in the words of the great document we celebrate this week, to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” 

It is indeed a sacred honor to serve God’s children.  But let us never forget that God’s children are all the children of the world.  Love your neighbor as yourself was never meant to be literal. Love every person as yourself.  That was what Jesus meant.  Let us be free for one another, not in spite of one another.

           

Bending the Arc toward Justice: June 22

Galatians 3:23-29 & Luke 8:26-39          Year C, Pentecost 2                                                                

            This passage from Galatians is the reason that people like me love Paul.  “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  It’s a beautiful idea—that baptism is the great equalizer.  It unites us and makes us one.  There is no doubt in my mind that Paul really believed this. 

That is what makes some of Paul’s other comments a bit harder to handle.  In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells slaves to be obedient to their masters.  If he truly believed that all were equal when clothed in Christ, why would there be a master and slave?  Why not support the elimination of slavery as a whole?  In Paul’s 1^st letter to the Corinthians, he told women that they should not speak in church, and should be subordinate[1].  In 1^st Timothy, Paul told women that they should not teach men or have authority over them[2].  These are texts that churches still quote to prevent women in leadership.  If there was no longer male or female, how could one be subordinate to others?

            Let’s start with the issue of slavery.  Slavery in biblical times was different than it was in our country.  It was not based on race.  It was not something you were born into. It was a broad term.  Sometimes that word referred to those who were taken as captives during a war.  Sometimes it referred to a paid servant.  For instance, people who were slaves to those in high positions had more power than some people who were considered free. Typically when the word slave is used in the New Testament (rather than servant), the translator is indicating a lack of freedom.  That doesn’t mean that a person was owned by another person (like how it was in our country during slavery), but their time was not their own and they have limited freedom in what they could do and who they could be.

While slavery wasn’t the same in biblical times, it certainly wasn’t a good thing.  It was an unjust economic system that kept some people down while others prospered. Paul argued at times for justice and good treatment of slaves, but he didn’t argue for a change to the economic system which would eliminate slavery, at least not in the writings we have.  I think it was because he knew he couldn’t accomplish that.  It was too big for even him. 

            Changing the economic system of a place and time requires more than one person and even more than a lifetime. We see it in the Gospel reading today as well.  Jesus went to the country of the Gerasenes.  That area was most likely Gentile territory, not a place that Jesus would have been welcome.  As soon he just got out of his boat, he was confronted by a man who was possessed with so many demons that he referred to himself as legion. 

These spirits had terrorized the man so much that he was forced to live among the tombs.  This wasn’t a nice well maintained cemetery that we are accustomed to seeing.  It was the wilderness, away from people.  When he did come near people, they chained him up so he could be restrained.  But whatever possessed him was stronger than the chains and shackles. He was able to break free from them.  That was how strong the spirits were. Yet even the evil spirits bowed before Jesus and Jesus was able to free him with just a few words.  He sent the evil spirits into a herd of pigs who then ran off a cliff and drowned.  As a result, this man went from being naked, violent and living in the wild, to sitting at the feet of Jesus like the other disciples.

            You would think the people of the town would have been relieved to have this possessed man healed. After all, he was tormenting them as well.  Instead, seeing this dramatic transformation scared them.  It’s unclear why they were scared, but I think it’s partly because this exorcism also affected the economy of the region. Who spread the news of the healing? It was the swineherds, the people who were responsible for the pigs that had been drowned. In drowning those pigs, Jesus had ruined their livelihood. 

Their frustration is understandable, but you would think it would have been tempered by the knowledge that a man had been healed. He had been given his life back.  He was free now. Yet it would seem that didn’t matter at all. All that mattered was the money they lost.  Instead of learning more about Jesus, a man who had the power to heal and provide true freedom and transformation, they forced him to leave the town. After all, who knows what else he could have destroyed? 

Jesus left them.  He left them to their fear and their obsession with what they had over who they could be.  If Jesus couldn’t make them see the importance of a human soul over a herd of pigs, how was Paul supposed to convince communities that the economic system that enslaved people might be unhealthy and sinful? Paul knew his limitations.  In the end, he was human like we all are.  Do I wish he would have spoken even more boldly and clearly supported women’s leadership? Yes. Do I wish he could have ended slavery then and there? Of course.  I don’t think he could. Sometimes sin is so entrenched, it takes more than one person to defeat it.

In our Gospel reading last week, Jesus told his disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…”  I think even Jesus knew that there were some things people were not ready to understand, some things that would take thousands of years for us to understand.  That doesn’t mean that he was ok with the injustices that he witnessed, he just knew there were certain truths they could not handle.  So Jesus left them and us with the Holy Spirit that would continue to inspire people and help us discern God’s wisdom, God’s will for our world.

The man that Jesus healed wanted to follow Jesus. There is a part of me that hates that Jesus would not let him.  After all he had been through, why couldn’t he hang out with Jesus for a little while longer? But Jesus knew that his presence in the town would force that community to see what Jesus was capable of. Maybe that one transformed individual could accomplish more in time that Jesus could in that one day. Jesus’ time was limited.

There are times when I read this text from the Galatians about us all being equal in Christ and wonder, why has this been so hard to understand? How did slavery happen in this country when Christians had access to this text?  How did the abolition of slavery then allow for discrimination and just more forms of enslavement when we had this text? Why did it take almost 2000 years for Christians to allow women to be ordained when we have had this text? 2000 years…that’s quite a learning curve.  Why are so many Christians still unwilling to see the beauty in our LGBTQ+ community? Why are people in the trans community being murdered just for being who they need to be? It’s maddening.  Why don’t we know better when we have this text?

Martin Luther King famously said that “the arc of moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That bend toward justice feels quite flat sometimes.  It’s a slow bend. Yet I do believe that Christians have corrected many of the mistakes of the past. We have opened our hearts and changed course in ways we would never have expected even 100 years ago.  The church and our world has changed because Christians have pushed it to change.  Christians have reminded people of what Paul said in Galatians, what Jesus said on the sermon of the mount.

We are here to continue the ministry that Jesus and Paul began.  Even in the last 20 years, I have seen the Episcopal Church stop arguing about so much that they argued about 20 years ago. We have found new stuff to argue about, but I think that is the way progress happens. It’s a slog. 

I like to think that the man who Jesus left in the country of the Gerasenes eventually got through to people, not everyone, but enough, enough to make a change, enough to bend that arc toward justice.  That’s why we can never give up.  Jesus didn’t suffer, die, rise again and leave us with the Holy Spirit so we could give up 2000 years later. Much like the man who was healed, we continue serving and living in our imperfect community sharing what God has done for us and what God’s love can do for others. Because that arc isn’t going to bend itself.  That’s up to us.

---

[1] 1 Corinthians 14:34

[2] 1 Timothy 2:11-13

Start with glory: June 15

Year C, Trinity Sunday                                                                 Psalm 8 & Romans 5:1-5                                                                                              

There is a theological concept I have always found abhorrent.  There are traces of it in the early church—but was really established by John Calvin who lived in the 16^th century and played a large part in the Protestant Reformation.  I will admit that John Calvin had a lot of great points, but the concept of total depravity was not one of them. In essence, it means that all humans are innately sinful and despite our best efforts always will be.  He went on to say that we could still be saved, but our nature was in and of itself evil.  This theological belief has had a profound effect on many branches of Christianity and you will still see the concept lurking in many Christian churches today---some associated with denominations and some that are not.  It’s usually in the fine print, but it’s there.

Normally, I am not a fan of the concept of total depravity, but this week I started wondering, if maybe Calvin was on to something.  This week has been a barrage of bad news.  We have the conflict in the Middle East that has now expanded to include Iran.  We have ICE raids in elementary schools and politicians who care more about reaching a quota of deportations than the humans that are being deported.  Then we have the United States military in one of our nation’s cities with threats of more to come.  Just yesterday two government officials were gunned down in their own homes in what is being described as “targeted attacks.” Meanwhile our leaders (and I am talking about both parties right now) point fingers at one another with no apparent desire to find a solution, just to prove who has the most power.  I am so incredibly weary of it all.  I suspect we all are.

When I get weary of reading the news and listening to our politicians, l love to dive into the apostle Paul.  He would have been a horrible politician. He would not have even made it as pastor because he was always way too honest and probably/definitely a little too stubborn. I kind of love that about him because it makes me trust him and his words.  He was in no way trying to win friends and influence people.  However, that also makes some of his words harder to digest. 

In his letter to the Romans he wrote, “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us…”  Now if I saw that on a meme or a greeting card today, I would roll my eyes and move on.  I would think, clearly this guy has not witnessed a lot of suffering or he would know that suffering doesn’t always lead to hope.  Paul knew suffering.  He wrote some of his letters from prison cells. A few weeks ago we heard of his experiences being beaten, whipped and chained. More than that, he worshipped a God who knew suffering. 

Before Paul got to suffering and the chain reaction that would lead to hope, he started with glory. He said, “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” I talk about suffering a lot.  I have also preached my fair share of sermons about hope.  I don’t know that I have ever spent much time thinking or preaching about glory. 

I believe that the easiest place to recognize glory is in creation and the world around us.  We see that in our Psalm for today.  “O Lord, how exalted is your Name in all the world…When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses…”  That is how the psalmist saw glory thousands of years ago. When it’s a clear night and you aren’t surrounded by light pollution or smog…or smoke from wildfires, it’s hard to look at the sky and not admire the vastness and beauty of it all. There is a reason that so many find God in nature. God’s glory surrounds us. Sometimes it’s smaller. I was sitting in my yard writing this sermon the other night and I saw the first lightning bugs of the season and there is something about lightning bugs that makes me giddy at the subtle beauty of our world.  However, that is about where my consideration of glory ends---out there, above here. 

Yet the psalm goes on to say, “What is man that you should be mindful of him? The son of man that you should seek him out? You have made him but little lower than the angels; you adorn him with glory and honor…”  In all our talk of the glory of creation and the beauty and majesty of the world we live in, we forget that we are part of this majestic and glorious creation.  We were God’s last act of creation, the pinnacle of the creation story, made in the image of God, only a little lower than the angels. 

The creator chose us to be God’s presence in this glorious but messy world.  That is why I have a problem with the idea of total depravity even in the midst of a world that feels depraved at times, I know that at our core, we are God’s creation and we are adorned with glory and honor. At the end of the creation story, the author of Genesis says, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”  It is our inability to see that in ourselves and in one another that hurts us and leads us to try to destroy one another.   

I often struggle with the idea that suffering can lead to endurance, which leads to character which ends in hope.  Because I have seen suffering that breaks people instead of strengthens them.  I have also seen suffering where the breaks and the fractures bring new forms of strength, endurance, character and hope. I think it helps to know this text—to know that we can learn and grow from suffering, but also not to beat ourselves up when the suffering leaves us a little weaker.  It’s ok to have some weaknesses.

Perhaps in my desperate desire for hope, I tried to skip glory.  Paul wrote, “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”  Boast is an awkward word choice.  Another way to translate that phrase is to say that we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. We are not rejoicing in our own glory.  We are rejoicing in our hope of sharing God’s glory.  Because no matter how much smoke and ash cloud the night sky, God’s glory is still there.

Hope is hard work.  It’s not something that just comes to us. It’s something that we have to fight for. That fight can be exhausting.  What if we could harness God’s glory, like fireflies in the jar---so that we never forget that our world is good. We are good…just below the angels.

In many ways, I think that is what we try to do in worship—harness and share glory.  You can hear it in Parker and Cathy’s playing.  You can hear it in the voices of those who sing, not just the beautiful voices of the choir, but all around you.  These voices have been through it. They have waged battles.  They have suffered. Still they sing.  Still this community gathers and that to me is one of the greatest glories that I have witnessed, it’s the community of faith that continues to worship a God who they cannot see and often cannot understand.  Still we pray words that feel hard to say at times, but we say them because prayer shapes how and what we believe. Sometimes prayer is aspirational.  What I see in this community is people who have not given into despair.  I see glory and I hope you can too.