Writing Our Stories of Transformation: May 5, 2024

Year B, Easter 6                                    Acts 10:44-48                                                            

        Recently I was contacted a by radio station that wanted to talk about the history of Christ Church.  Of course, I know many of the highlights and I got a tour of the church when I interviewed here, but I wanted to hear what stories our educators were regularly telling.  I contacted one of our educators and asked him what the go-to stories were. They were all from the 1700s.  I said, “Don’t you have any from the 1800s or 1900s?”  And he said, “Well, there are some, but we mostly stick to the 1700s.”  I understand that.  People come to Philadelphia because they want to hear about the start of our nation…which was in the 1700s. 

In some ways, we do the same thing when we tell the story of Christianity. The New Testament basically covers 100 years. In the Easter season, we emphasize this even more by replacing the Old Testament reading with readings from the Book of Acts.  We do this is partly to distinguish the Easter season from other seasons.  Something big happened on Easter, something that changed the world for everyone (whether they know it or not).  For these 50 days after Easter, we look ahead instead of behind.  The Book of Acts tells the story of the beginning of the Christian Church.  In doing so, it tells of transformation of individuals and groups.  It doesn’t just tell the story of what happened before, it gives us a template for our future story. 

            The Acts reading we have for today seems rather innocuous.  The Holy Spirit fell on some people and Peter decided to baptize them.  This is chapter 10 of Acts.  In just a few weeks we will hear the Pentecost story from the 2^nd chapter of Acts where the Holy Spirit fell on people in the form of fire.  People who did not even know the language that the disciples were speaking, could suddenly understand the disciples as if they were speaking their own language.  It was quite a scene.  Therefore the scene this week is well…boring in comparison.

            The problem is that we missed a few critical chapters between last week’s story of the baptism and conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch and this week’s story.  Therefore, to fully appreciate the drama of what happens in this text, let me share a little about what happened in the previous chapters, particularly with Peter.  As most of us know, Peter had some rough moments in the Gospels.  He did not come out looking like a star disciple. However, after the resurrection, Peter truly shined.  In chapter 9, we hear a story of Peter healing a paralyzed man, and then, as if that was not impressive enough, he brought someone back from the dead.   This undoubtedly gave Peter some confidence in his abilities, as well as his connection to God.

            After Peter raised someone from the dead we hear stories of two visions from God.  One is for Cornelius, a Roman officer, and one is for Peter.  Cornelius’s vision was simply a command to find Peter.  Peter’s vision was a little more complicated.  It involved a command from God to eat animals that were considered unclean by the Jews.  Peter initially insisted that he could not eat these animals because he would never eat anything considered profane or unclean by Jewish law.  Finally God responded, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” The God who raised Jesus from the dead had changed things.  God was telling Peter that it was time for him to change as well. 

            Shortly after this vision, Peter was called to the home of Cornelius, a Gentile and a Roman soldier.  Just the fact that Peter agreed to go to the home of a Gentile is remarkable.  There was something from that vision of the unclean animals---and perhaps even before that vision---that opened him up to this possibility. He met Cornelius, as well as Cornelius’ family and friends and heard the story of Cornelius’ vision from God.  Peter came to know Cornelius and his family as more than just Gentiles, but as people who God had called.

Peter proceeded to share this sermon: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  This is a complete 180 from what Peter previously had thought.  Up until now, he had only preached to the Jews.  He had believed that only Jews could hear and receive the message of Jesus Christ.

            This turn around was partially due to the vision that God had sent, where he proclaimed that what God had made clean, no one could call profane.  But it also came from his interactions with Gentiles, the time he spent talking to them and eating with them. It was probably a more gradual change than it appears in these few chapters. It was no doubt a difficult change.  He didn’t just have a vision and fundamentally change his world view. He opened himself up to the movement of the Spirit.  He let down his guard enough to see that maybe things were not as clear as he once thought.

Wisps of the Holy Spirit had slowly whittled away at those beliefs that had been so sacred to him, so foundational to his faith.  It was not an easy transformation, as transformations rarely are.  But the transformation he made altered the course of history.  Without his willingness to be open to the Holy Spirit, we might not have a Christian faith today.

            That is what brings us to today’s reading.   He was at Cornelius’ house and a crowd formed.  It was a crowd of Gentiles.  Peter told the crowd the story of his vision and experience with Cornelius.  While Peter was speaking to these Gentiles, proclaiming the good news, the Holy Spirit fell upon every person who was listening to this good news. I love that the text says, “While Peter was still speaking…” The Holy Spirit interrupted Peter. It’s like it could not wait any longer. The Holy Spirit swept in and fell upon these Gentiles.  Surely Peter’s words had something to do with their transformation, but the text proves that there is something unpredictable about the Spirit, even to super apostles like Peter.  

While the Holy Spirit surprised Peter a little, it shocked the Jews who were the companions of Peter. They could not believe that the Holy Spirit would be poured onto these unbelievers, these Gentiles.  It is understandable that they were shocked.  After all, the Holy Spirit had been working on Peter for a while now.  He had seen visions. He had gotten to know faithful Gentiles.  But for Peter’s companions, this was new and shocking. 

Peter could have said, well, let’s prayerfully discern this. We can have some listening sessions, form a task force—then in a year or so we can decide whether we should start baptizing Gentiles. Nope, he simply asked the Jews in his midst, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”  No one could.  They could have said no. They could have grumbled and said things under their breath (which they probably did).  But no one was willing to withhold water from people who had already received the Holy Spirit. 

            The Book of Acts does not merely tell us the history of the beginning of the church.  It tells us our purpose.  It tells us our potential as people of the risen Christ. Sometimes in the church, we focus far too much on what has happened as opposed to what can happen. We focus on stories that have already been told.  That is understandable as we have a lot of great stories. But we cheat ourselves when we act like our faith is one of history and not a story of how we live today and tomorrow. 

The only way that we can move forward as people of faith and as a congregation is if we ask ourselves where the Holy Spirit is moving us now…what change might be on the horizon? What walls can we break down? Who are the Gentiles today? Sometimes it seems like it’s anyone we don’t agree with because we have gotten so bad at seeing the humanity in the people who we perceive as wrong or not as enlightened as we are. There are so many opportunities for connection and transformation.

            Imagine if there were no stories of transformation in the Bible.  It is impossible to imagine because it would be mind numbingly boring.  So why is it that we do think we can live on the transformation of people who have come before us?  We can’t.  The stories of the Acts of the Apostles are 2000 years old. We need new stories.  That’s up to us.  Let’s make sure that when an educator gives a tour in 100 years, they are talking about not just the 1700s (or even the 1800s), but the 21^st century.  We can build those stories of transformation now.   

Fear and Love: April 28, 2024

Year B, Easter 5                                   1 John 4:7-21         

                    I am afraid of a lot of things: cockroaches, mice, large crowds, Philadelphia drivers, cancer, COVID, infections…just to name a few.  Some of these are rational fears.  Some, not so much.  Thus when I see this line from 1^st John that says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…”--- I want to know how I can get this kind of love. I am pretty sure I know God’s love.  I know that I am loved by God.  It’s something that I have felt certain of my whole life and has held me up, even when I doubted every other thing.  So why do I still have these fears? Unfortunately the author of 1^st John wasn’t talking about the more mundane fears like rodents and aggressive drivers, or even the serious fears like disease.  John was most likely talking about the fear of God’s judgment, which was a much more prevalent fear in this time period.

          Especially in our modern age, most Episcopal clergy tend to focus more on love than judgment.  Our presiding bishop, Michael Curry’s favorite thing to say is, “If it’s not about love, then it’s not about God.”  There is no doubt that Jesus talked a lot about love and that is an obvious theme in all of 1^st John. In the New Testament, you will find some version of the Greek word agape (translated to love), 140 times.   However, judgment also shows up a few times in the New Testament…not as much, but it’s definitely there.  While 1^st John was written a little later than most of the gospels and Paul’s letters, there were still a lot of people at that time who thought that Jesus was returning sooner, rather than later, and when Jesus returned people would be judged. That judgment would determine who was saved and who was not. That meant it was more on the forefront of people’s minds, this fear of God’s judgment. 

Frankly, I think that would be better to focus on that fear rather than all the others fears that preoccupy our minds because there is a clear solution to that fear.  All these earthly worries don’t have clear solutions, but there is an answer to the fear that we hear about in 1^st John.  That answer is God’s love.  John wrote: “perfect love casts out fear.”  Perfect love is God’s love. God casts out fear.

I wonder if we were really confident in God’s love for us and we felt that love, then maybe we would not worry as much about the concerns of this life.  So often we find we worry about how others might be judging us or we might even be pre-occupied by our own self judgment.  While few people like to contemplate God’s judgement, that would be a more productive thing to worry about—because God can help us in very tangible ways to find freedom from that judgment. That is what God’s love can do. It can free us.  Yet it is really hard to free ourselves from these other worldly concerns, probably because they are our own creation.  It’s hard to let go of what we create.

          While I love the Episcopal Church, I worry that we have watered down God’s love a bit too much. We have allowed it to evolve into a Hallmark emotion.  God’s love isn’t an emotion.  God’s love is action.  This text from John spells it out: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  I would like to get into a long discussion on what the “atoning sacrifice” means, but I am pretty sure that would only be interesting to about 5 of you.  (You can let me know on the way out who you are.) 

What I would rather focus on is the act of God sending his son to this world…this world that had disappointed God over and over again.  God sent God’s son to be with us, to live with us, and then die on a cross so that we might understand the depth of God’s love.  According to John, that is how God’s love was revealed to us.  God wanted us to see his love in action, up close and personal so that we could then show that love to others.

          I fear many things, but I don’t fear God’s judgment. And that’s not because I am perfect.  It’s not because I am an extraordinary Christian.  It’s because I know that God’s rooting for me.  God is rooting for all us.  In sending God’s son, God was saying, “I’m all in.”  And you don’t do that for a people you intend to damn to hell.  No, you do that for people you are intent of saving…in this world and the next. 

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Romans and reads, “If God is for us, who is against us?” Honestly, when I think of that text, or quote that text, that is the only part that I remember.  However it popped into my head while writing this sermon and I looked it up to make sure I had the quote correct. Then I looked at the lines right after. ^“He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”

          I realize that there are so many things that weigh on each of your hearts.  Even those of you who may not be prone to worry, still has something that burdens you.  I feel like the majority of my adult life, I have labored over the juxtaposition of my anxiety, versus my confidence of God’s love. That’s right, I worry about my proclivity to worry. So here is what I am going to try and I commend it to you as well.  I am going to try to dwell in God’s love, rest in the assurance of God’s love for me and God’s love for all of us.  Because God’s love is so much greater than the sum of all of our concerns.  I am going to remind myself that it’s ok if there is still fear in my love because my love is not the axis on which this world turns.  God’s love is the axis on which this world turns. That is the love I choose to dwell in. One day, I hope that my love and you love might look a bit more like God’s love…but for now, we can dwell in God’s love.

Souls Need Other Souls: April 21, 2024

Year B, Easter 4                                John 10:11-18 and Psalm 23
This Sunday is often referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday because of the imagery that we find in both the gospel reading and the psalm.  Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved psalms in the Book of Psalms.  I have planned many funerals over the years and 90% of the time, the family will choose psalm 23. I have often wondered why. Why that psalm? What is it about the image of the shepherd that brings people such comfort?  Part of the choice comes from the familiarity. For people who don’t know the psalms, they will gravitate to what is most familiar. There is comfort in familiarity.  It’s the reason that so many of us have a movie, a book, or a show that we return to again and again. Just knowing something can make us feel better, even when we can’t articulate what it is about that thing that makes it so comforting.  Yet there must be a reason that this psalm and the image of Jesus as a shepherd has become such a familiar and popular image.  Of course it’s more than just the shepherd imagery.  It’s the words of the psalm.
                How many of you have a soul that needs reviving?  How many have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, or any valley of darkness?  How many are tortured by wants and needs and would give anything not to be in want?  How many long to rest and find a comfortable place to lie down? These are longings that would have resonated with those who first heard this psalm thousands of years ago and continue to resonate with so many of us.  The answer to these longings is found not in ourselves or those around us, but in the Lord, who is our shepherd. But that is easier said than done. Because I think we have lost our familiarity with God---with any image of God.
                In our Gospel reading, Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd, the one who lays down his life for the sheep, the one who knows the sheep and is known by the sheep.  Even here we can see how important it is to Jesus to know and be known.  He understands the importance of familiarity in both a savior and a community. 
If you were to just read this passage without looking at what comes before and after, one might assume that he is speaking to his disciples or other followers…a crowd of people who are lost and beleaguered…the same kind of people who need to hear the words of Psalm 23.  No doubt whoever heard these words did need them. But it wasn’t just his disciples. Jesus was also speaking to people who were very critical of him and suspicious of his message.  In that crowd were the Pharisees, the religious elite of the Jewish faith.  We know they were there because they had been part of the previous conversation in chapter 9.
                Right before describing himself as a shepherd, Jesus had healed a blind man on the Sabbath and the Pharisees were not happy that he was doing work on the Sabbath as that was against their rules.   The Pharisees questioned the man who had been born blind, trying to figure out how and why Jesus did what he did. They tried to get the man who could now see to say that Jesus was not a man from God.  The man refused and said: “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes… Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’”  The Pharisees didn’t like this answer and cast the formerly blind man out of the community.  He was no longer welcome.
When Jesus heard the man had been cast out, he returned to find him, even though this would almost surely create another confrontation with the Pharisees.  However, Jesus knew that this man had already led his whole life marginalized and ostracized and he didn’t want that to continue.  He had already given him his sight, but he wanted him to know the source of the healing.  The blind man had never actually seen Jesus because Jesus had made the healing contingent on him washing in the pool of Siloam.  By the time he did that, Jesus had moved on.  By finding him again, Jesus not only brought him back into the community that the Pharisees pushed him out of, Jesus gave the man the opportunity to see him, to know him.
Jesus knew that physical healing was incomplete if this man was still ostracized.  It’s not just that this man just could not see before, when someone had a disability, it was assumed that they were being punished for their sin or the sin of their parents.  So not only did this man have to live in a world with no accommodation for someone who couldn’t see, he had to live with people assuming his disability was actually a punishment from God.  Jesus knew this wasn’t true and he didn’t want this man to suffer any more judgment or shaming than he already had.  Jesus understood how important it was to have people belong to a community.
That is why he said in our reading for today, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”  He sought this formerly blind man out and now in our reading for today, we hear him telling the Pharisees and disciples that this was the kind of messiah he would be. He would be the shepherd who would always be calling new people into the fold, who would call the marginalized and cast out into the fold.
For so long the Christian faith was about who was in and who was out.  Who was saved and who was not. Who was a sinner and who was forgiven.  Yet Jesus wanted everyone to know him and know his voice.  It was not about who would be part of his club, it was about those who would hear his voice.  We have gotten better at welcoming people. We have significantly lowered the barrier to entry for our churches.  But if we were to model ourselves off of Jesus (which is what we are supposed to do), we would know that being welcoming isn’t good enough.  When Jesus heard that man was cast out, he went and found him.  Because he wanted not just to be a familiar voice or a comforting figure. He wanted to be his shepherd and his savior.   It wasn’t enough to heal his body, he wanted to revive his soul.  Jesus understood that a soul needs other souls.
Our world is full of people with parched souls who still see Christianity as a private club that they are not welcome to.  Since we don’t have Jesus in the flesh searching for the lost and the weary, we have to be those people.  We, who know the voice of Jesus, must carry that voice out so that other souls can be restored and people can know that there is a place where they are not merely welcome, but a place where they can belong. 
You might think, oh I don’t know the voice of Jesus well enough to introduce others to it.  And I understand that.  Even as a priest, there are times when I think, who am I to share this message? How do I know I am saying the right thing?  Am I even hearing God’s voice?  Here’s what you can do.  You can reacquaint yourself with the voice of God.  Take this gospel reading or this psalm and read it every day.  Find a verse and make it a mantra. The more you read it, the more you internalize it, the more you will hear God’s voice and be able to share it with others.  People should not have to wait until there is a funeral to be reminded of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.  People should not have to wait for a tragedy to hear about the God who wants them and all people to know that they deserve to be part of something holy, something good and something that brings healing and love. People should not have to wait because we have that beautiful message.

We Know a Man Named Jesus: March 31, 2024

 Easter, Year B                                                                          Mark 16:1-8 and Acts 10:34-43                                                                      

            This reading from Mark feels incomplete.  Mark has some of the pieces that we expect in an Easter Gospel reading. There is the empty tomb and a man in white who greets the women and tells them that Jesus has risen.  However, there is no appearance of the risen Christ, no sharing of the Gospel message.  The last line is: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.”  This ending made early scholars so uncomfortable, two optional endings were added on centuries later—a shorter ending and a longer ending. 

The shorter ending is one verse long and includes the women going and telling the disciples, just as they were told to do.  The longer ending is 11 verses and includes appearances of the risen Christ and instructions from Jesus to the disciples about spreading the good news.  No one knows who wrote these additional endings.  We just know that it wasn’t the original author of the Gospel of Mark.  One might ask why these additions were made and accepted as gospel for so long? I believe it’s because we like neat and tidy endings.  We like happy endings, especially on Easter. 

            Some think that Mark’s original ending was lost.  The text would have been written on papyrus…which was a delicate material.  It’s not irrational to conclude that something could have  broken off.  However, if we look at the rest of Gospel of Mark, we can see that he had a style which was a bit like a news reporter with limited space. Just the facts.  For instance, Mark didn’t include the story of Jesus birth.  For him, that was not critical to the story.  Mark’s emphasis was on the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus.  There is also a unique theme in Mark called the Messianic Secret in that whenever someone revealed Jesus to be who he truly was, Jesus told them to be quiet and ordered them not to tell anyone.  The theory is that Jesus didn’t believe anyone could truly understand who he was without him dying on the cross. 

            In some ways, it’s a cruel irony that the last line would be that the women said nothing. The whole Gospel Jesus has been telling people not to tell anyone who he was and now they have this magnificent news and they are still following his original directions.  But at the transfiguration (when Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah--- 2 great prophets who had died long before) he told the disciples not to tell anyone until after he had risen from the dead.  They didn’t know what that meant at the time, but Jesus hoped that they would once it actually happened. Now was the time.  Now was the time to finally tell, but if all we know is what we read here in chapter 16 of Mark, they never told---for terror and amazement had seized them.

            And yet…they must have told.  We know this because the other gospels tell the 2^nd part of the story.  It’s even in our reading from Acts today.  But the primary way we know that the women shared this amazing story is because we are still talking about it.  That is why you all are here today.  It’s not just the flowers and the glorious music.  It’s not just the finger sandwiches or the baptisms.  We are here because we believe that something incredible and frightening happened 2000 years ago, something that should never have happened. People die every day. It’s horrible and it painful, but it’s real and we all believe in death.  Jesus’s disciples knew he had died. They were ready to grieve his death and visit his grave. They were not ready for this brand new reality, the reality that this carpenter from Nazareth had defeated death. 

            So back to Mark.  Why did he leave it without the ending we all want?  I think Mark knew, that it’s wasn’t up to him to finish the story.  It’s up to us to share the good news.  Do we share the good news because it’s interesting and fun? I guess that could be a reason.  Someone coming back from the dead is definitely newsworthy.  But I think if we look at our reading from Acts, we will hear why this news of Jesus’ resurrection is good news.  We call the gospel the good news, but we never talk about why it’s good news.

            Peter (the guy who denied Jesus and was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth) went on to be a rock star disciple after the resurrection.  In this reading from Acts, we hear part of Peter’s message: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him…he is Lord of all.”  Do you know what kind of message that was? It’s one of our favorite words here at Christ Church.  It was revolutionary.    This wasn’t revolutionary for a specific place or a specific people—it was for ALL people EVERYWHERE. 

This was a time when only certain people were allowed in the temple.  And it wasn’t just the Jewish faith that had limitations, almost every faith had limitations on who was and wasn’t loved by God.  There was no major religion that was open to all regardless of gender, sexuality, color or race.  Yet that was what Jesus and Peter were trying to do, show a new way where all people could approach God as equals.   

That was Jesus’s intention, but it took Christians a long time to figure that out, even though this idea of God’s love for all is what Peter was encouraging 2000 years ago. It was that radical, that it took 2000 years for us really to embrace the fact that God shows no partiality. God has no favorites.  And I admit we are not completely there yet.  We still have work to do. Yet I am confident that the more we can celebrate and embrace the resurrection and the more we can follow the path that Jesus created for us, the more we can be a truly a revolutionary community of believers.  Because before we can consider ourselves revolutionary, we must first consider ourselves people of the resurrection.

            There is a reason this fisherman with little education was able share that kind of radical message that took 2000 years for us to embrace.  Because he knew a man named Jesus who had treated all people with love and compassion.  He knew a man named Jesus who died on a cross because people were not ready for his message.  He knew a man named Jesus who promised he would be resurrected and then defeated death.  That is how he could say “God shows no partiality…” 

Do you know a man named Jesus? It’s ok if you don’t completely know him.  Look what it took for Peter to get on board—a lot.  We always say at Christ Church, “Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on your journey of faith, you are welcome at Christ Church.”  That’s true.  You don’t have to believe a certain thing to be a part of this community.  But let me tell you why I and so many others can provide that message of unconditional love and welcome….because we know a man named Jesus who loves all nations, blesses all nations and shows no partiality.  We want you to know him too. 

Who Condemns Us?: March 10, 2024

 Year B, Lent 4                                                     John 3:13-21                                                              

            John 3:16 is probably one of the most well known verses in the Bible.  It’s definitely one of the only ones that you will see repeatedly held up in the stands at a professional sports event. That’s not because it’s specific to any professional sport. Over the years it became a defining verse for some Christians.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to share Bible verses with the world. Yet I worry that anytime we remove a verse entirely from its context, we risk misusing it.  This verse has been used as a weapon at times to differentiate between those who are saved and those who are not.  Some Christians use it to make themselves feel better about their own place in this world (and the next).  It gives them permission to judge those who aren’t Christian---or sometimes just not their kind of Christian.

Today you heard part of the context, but not all of it.  For instance, if you just heard what we read this morning, you don’t know who Jesus is talking to. He’s talking to a pharisee named Nicodemus who came to him at night to ask him a question.  Often times in the gospels, when pharisees asked a question, they were trying to trap Jesus, make him provide an answer that would get him in trouble.  This was not the case with Nicodemus. He was genuinely curious (as were many pharisees) about Jesus.  He was more than curious because later in the gospel he became a follower of Jesus, even making the arrangements to bury Jesus.  At this point in the gospel story he was really just trying to figure things out and the questions that he asked, ended up eliciting some powerful statements on Jesus’ part. It shows that asking God questions is a helpful and fruitful thing to do.

It’s out of this conversation with Nicodemus that comes this iconic verse: “For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  It’s a lovely verse and very effective in conveying the crux of our faith.  However, it has become a weapon because people have emphasized “not perish but have eternal life.”  In other words, the emphasis has been on, how do we not perish and get to this end goal of eternal life.

When I started reading the Bible, it was often coming from a defensive place for me.  I was around a fair number of Evangelicals in college and I felt like there was way too much emphasis on how to save other people. I would look up the texts they quoted at me and read what came before and after. Sometimes, that helped my cause, sometimes not. When I looked up John 3:16 , I was so excited to read the very next line. It was going to become my new weapon.  Right after this line that turned into a litmus test for salvation Jesus said, “Indeed God didn’t send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

I was so excited when I read this, I highlighted and underlined.  Then I read the next line, “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already; because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” There it went, my verse to counter all the judgement was contradicted in the very next verse. 

Or was it? Notice it doesn’t say who does the condemning or what the condemnation is.  Jesus clearly said in my perfect verse that he didn’t come into this world to condemn the world.  If not Jesus, who is doing the condemning?  Maybe we do the condemning ourselves.  What if we condemn ourselves by not believing that there is a God who loves this crazy world so much that he would risk living and dying as a human just to know us and help us know God?  What if we condemn ourselves by depriving ourselves of the grace that God freely give us?  God doesn’t condemn us.  We do that ourselves. 

            If we are the ones condemning ourselves, there has to be a way to stop.  Because we all condemn ourselves in our own unique ways and for different reasons, then there are different things that we can all do to move away from that which condemns us.  Since we are in church, I am going to tell you one way that applies to all of us—that’s deepening our relationship with God. The self help industry has some great stuff going on, but we have to be careful when we start focusing too much on the self.  Sometimes that makes things harder. Often it’s when we focus outside the self when we can truly free ourselves from condemnation—that means focusing on other people and other parts of the world that might need God’s love.

 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  In the past when I have read this verse, I have always interpreted “eternal life” as life after death.  That is the reward for believing in God.  That is what we are being saved for.  In chapter 17 of this same gospel, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. 

When we hear the word eternal, we often equate it with immortality.  I am not sure that was what Jesus meant.  Perhaps Jesus wasn’t talking about the quantity of years as much as he was talking about the quality of life.  What if we define eternal life not by a time or even a place, but a relationship?  Eternal life is our relationship with God now and forever.  Eternal life starts now.  It’s not a reward for good behavior.  It’s a relationship. It’s a relationship that makes our life better in the future, but also right now. 

That also means we can’t just ignore the challenges of this world and say, “Well God will fix it all in the next world.” We have to work for change now because this world matters.  It’s the very same one God created. These people on this world matter. They are children of God. Eternal life starts now.  Condemnation can end now. 

We know this because God came to this world not to condemn, but to save. What we as Christians can do is make sure people know that they are not condemned by a God that they cannot see or touch---that God lived and died so that we could know what it is to be loved and to be whole.  Eternal life starts now.  Condemnation ends now.  Salvation is here and it’s been here all along. 

We are the open doors: March 3, 2024

 Year B, Lent 3                         John 2:13-22                                                         

          When I walked into this church for the first time, it took my breath away. It was a beautiful day and the sun was streaming through the windows lighting up everything within. It glowed. My last church was lovely and sacred, but it was dark. Most churches are because so many are made of dark wood and gray stones.  They are adorned with stained glass windows that allow very little light in.  But Christ Church is bright and warm.  When I saw those glass doors, it felt welcoming, like a church that was perpetually open.  Of course it’s not just the light that makes this church beautiful. It’s the Palladian window, the fluted columns and of course, the wineglass pulpit.  The building draws many people in. I had never met so many architects until I became the rector of Christ Church.  Now they are everywhere! All that said, the most beautiful part of this church is the people within.

            There is nothing wrong with having pride in one’s church. This church took over 20 years to be built in the 1700s and has required years and years of work since.  Churches and places of worship of this scale take time to build. It’s not surprising to hear that the temple in Jerusalem took over 46 years to build and when this gospel reading took place, it wasn’t even finished.  It’s understandable that the religious authorities had a lot of pride in the temple. 

Jesus wasn’t a fan of religious pride, or really any kind of pride. This Gospel story is one that surprises people.  It does not fit into the image that people have of Jesus.  People picture Jesus with a lamb over his shoulders and children on his lap.  They imagine him teaching and healing.  They don’t usually picture him with a whip driving animals and people out of a temple while overturning tables.  This is not the peace loving Jesus who we imagine in our heads.  Yet it was clearly an important event in the life of Jesus because all four Gospel writers recorded it. 

What was it that got Jesus all riled up?  There are a lot of theories about that.  Since he said, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” some people have assumed that he was angry about the fact that people were selling animals in the temple.  This is possible but unlikely.  Selling animals was a necessary part of the temple system.  People were supposed to make sacrifices and most people did not travel with sacrificial animals.  So it made sense to sell the animals at the temple.

Others have said that Jesus was not upset that these animals were being sold, but that they were being sold at an unfair price.  The sellers were taking advantage of people and profiting from these sacrifices that were meant for God alone.   This makes more sense in light of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In those three Gospels, Jesus tells the people that they have made his father’s house a den of robbers.  But he does not say that in John’s Gospel.  He just tells them to stop making his father’s house a marketplace. 

           I wonder if what he really meant was that they were making the temple a market place for God.  It was as if they were implying that they had exclusive rights to God…that people could only be in God’s presence when they were in the temple.  This was especially a concern in a time when there were many people who were ostracized from the temple.  Not just anyone could go in the temple, which meant that God’s love was limited. Jesus knew that this was not the case.  He knew that God was everywhere, present at all times.  Jesus also knew that his life, death, and resurrection would transform how and where people perceived God.   He wanted to introduce that change now while he was still living. 

          The people who had the power in the temple were angry that Jesus thought he had any right to call this holy temple his father’s house.  So they asked him for a sign…presumably a sign of his power.  His response was even more troublesome.  He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  They were astounded. The temple that he was standing in had already been under construction for 46 years and it wasn’t even finished yet.  And this carpenter was going to destroy it and build a new one in 3 days?  But Jesus was not talking about a temple made of bricks and mortar.  He was talking about his body.  His body was where God dwelled.  And his body would be destroyed in the crucifixion, but in three days in would be resurrected.

Jesus was not saying that God was not present in the temple anymore.  I want to be very clear on that.  He was at the temple to worship. Jesus regularly went to temple because he was a devout Jew. He was saying that God was not limited to the temple and no human institution has control over God’s presence.  No person or religious body can say that some people have access to God and some people don’t.   That is what got Jesus all riled up.  People weren’t just trying to control money and power; they were trying to control God.  They were trying to limit who had access to God.

          It would be easy to read this and feel a little superior. We don’t restrict who comes in our church. We welcome everyone.  Right?  And we do, but there are small ways that we limit access to our church.  For instance, you have to be literate to follow our leaflet.  If you are not very familiar with the English language, you probably won’t be comfortable in most Episcopal Churches.  While past church experience is by no means required, it’s helpful to understand the basics before participating in our worship, so you don’t get too confused.  These things aren’t unique to Christ Church. Almost every Episcopal Church has these same barriers to entry.   We can do small things to make ourselves more open and welcoming, but the Episcopal Church is structured in a way that makes it impossible for us to judge other churches/places of worship we perceive as less than hospitable.

The other barrier to entry is the perception of organized religion.  While our building seems an asset to many, others might find it intimidating, especially if they have negative associations with church.  I can’t tell you how many people have told me over the years that they are afraid if they walk into a church, lightning will strike.  One person told me he was only coming back to church in a casket and that turned out to be true.  Does this mean we should abandon these beautiful buildings that were built for the purpose of worshipping God? Of course not. But it does mean that we have to find other ways to connect with people who might never come into our building. 

I know that one of the reasons that we have these glass doors is so that we can demonstrate authentic welcome on Sunday mornings.  The first time I saw those glass doors on a Sunday morning, I felt that. But given the way our world now views religion, we need more than open doors and open windows.  For many unchurched people, it’s not the structure that will welcome them, it’s us, the people of God and the people of the church that are the open doors and open windows.  We are the connection between the church and the community.  We can be those points of connection by sharing our faith, a faith that emphasizes the abundant love and grace of Jesus Christ.

How do we do this? For one, we can be better about talking about our faith…not to convert them, just so people can see that Christians are good and loving people.  We can’t keep letting the loudest Christians have the monopoly on people’s perception of the Christian faith.  We are people they know and like.  We are more than what they see and hear on the news. We can invite them to events outside of Sunday morning worship that might be less intimidating, which means we need more of those events.  We can emphasize outreach and fellowship, or bring our worship into our beautiful garden because for some reason that is less intimidating to others. 

I will never cease to love this building and what it represents, but we can’t let the building confine our God. God’s love is way too big for that. We, the members of Christ Church are the vessels of Gods overflowing love.  Not only that, but we too are temples of the Holy Spirit.  God dwells in us and there is no wall that can confine the Spirit that dwells in us.

 

How God Changes: March 3, 2024

Genesis 9:8-17                                                Year B, Lent 3

            The story of Noah, the ark, and the rainbow is immensely popular, especially with children.  Thus, it has come up in numerous conversations with my son.  At first, we were just getting the basic story across---but being someone whose job it is to overthink the Bible, I have always been kind of uncomfortable with the children’s bible version of the story. It glosses over the reason for the flood and the destruction it created.  I realize that doesn’t belong in a children’s Bible, but I have always wondered how you transition from the children’s version, to the real version…without just confusing and disturbing kids.   Recently my son asked me why more animals weren’t saved.  It’s rare when I have a clear answer for one of his Bible questions and here there was a clear answer—which was that the ark had limited space.  That made perfect sense to him.  But because I am an Episcopal priest, I had to add, “You know the really confusing thing about the story, why God sent the flood in the first place.”  Joshua was unwilling to engage on this theological topic and he was wise to do so. 

            Two chapters before our reading for today, we read exactly why God decided to send a flood that destroyed the world and killed everyone except one family. ^“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”  The reading isn’t confusing because God isn’t clear.  In fact, this is one of those times when God is clearer than we would like God to be.  The problem is that it doesn’t fit with our image of a loving God.  Just the idea that God would regret creating us is almost unfathomable.

Some people choose to deal with this paradoxical view of God by dividing God into the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.  And while I hate to cause unnecessary consternation, I have to tell you, it’s the same God.  We don’t get a new God between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. It’s the very same God throughout the Bible.

            However, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t change.  There are a lot of people who think that God has never changed—that God cannot change.  Their argument would be that if we believe in a God who is perfect, how could God change? Why would God change? But the story of the flood and the promise that God made after the flood is a clear example of how God has evolved and how God’s relationship with humanity can and does change for the better. 

Often, we look at the story of the flood and think, “Ok, God was clearly very frustrated.  He tried something.  He got it out of his system, and promised to never do it again. Let’s talk about the rainbow now.” It’s tempting to gloss over the hard things, not just with the Bible, but in all kind of different ways.  One thing that is helpful to keep in mind is that this was very early on in God’s relationship with humanity.  The flood story starts in chapter 6 of Genesis---the very first book of the Bible. At this point we have had the story of creation, Adam and Eve and their disobedience and then the very first murder—Adam and Eve’s son (Cain ) killed his brother Abel.  After that Cain is cursed and then in chapter 5 we have the list all of the descendants of Adam.  At this point God’s experience with humanity is limited, and not that great. The next thing we know, God has decided that the earth is cursed and filled with violence and he decides to wipe the whole thing out.  Fortunately one person found favor with God. That one person, Noah, became the opportunity for a new beginning. 

God decided to forge this partnership with a human, allow that human to save representatives of the human race as well as animals of every kind.  God knew that there was something/someone worth saving.  After the flood, and this is where we are today, God promises never to do it again—God will never destroy the world with a flood again.  God even created a sign to help God remember—a rainbow.  That rainbow would not only remind God, but all humanity of God’s love and commitment to the people he created.

The question is why—what changed God’s mind.  Did God realize that humans were inherently good? Did humans improve their behavior. No, in fact, right before he made the covenant with Noah and his family, God said that the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth.  Humans were no less sinful than they were before the flood.  Humanity didn’t change.  God’s relationship with humanity changed. God decided that this was not the way to deal with humanity.  Instead, God would restrain Godself and change his behavior.

Could God continue as a God of justice, punishing the wicked and wiping out the earth every time the world turned violent? Sure, God could absolutely do that. Instead God decided to find a new way to deal with sin and evil, because he saw that this kind of justice wasn’t effective.  It didn’t change people’s hearts.  It didn’t make people good or more loving. Instead God decided to create a relationship with humans and redeem the world from within rather than punish from above and beyond.

God made this choice even though he knew that it would mean more pain for him.   When God first observed the violence of his people, right before he laid out his plan for the flood, it says that the evil of humankind grieved his heart. God knew that in deciding to be in relationship with the people of the world, that meant that God would have to open his heart to a world of grief…for eternity.  Yet this is what God accepted.  God chose love and compassion even though it would bring him ever ending grief.

Now this didn’t mean that God never reacted violently again.  This doesn’t mean that human’s never suffered again.  What it meant is that God never cut himself off from humanity, no matter how much it hurt the heart of God. God never gave up on humans….even, even when we give up on him.

Back in the early days of facebook, people would post their relationship status and one of the options was, “it’s complicated.”  Sometimes I think that’s how I would describe the relationship between God and humanity. It’s complicated. Yes, I believe in a God of unconditional love and compassion, but I also believe that God’s justice can sometimes see harsh when I read the stories in the Bible.  Sometimes that feels contradictory to me.  Yet God is consistent in what angers him.  Why did he say humans were evil at the time of Noah? Violence.  Why did he condemn the people of Ninevah? Violence.  Why was Sodom and Gomorah (one of the most misunderstood stories in the Bible) destroyed? Violence. Certainly God got angry about other things.  Idolatry always ticked him off, but God really could not stand it when people hurt other people. It grieved his heart and it still does. 

God’s relationship with humanity continued to evolve, never more so than when he sent Jesus to the earth. That was when God took his heart and opened it wider. He cracked it wide open. Yes, God was already in relationship with humans.  He loved humans.  But becoming human…that changed everything.  That is when God learned what it was to be truly vulnerable, to feel pain, loneliness and sadness.  God became a human so he could truly be in relationship with humans. 

One of the things that Lent calls us to do is look at our relationship with God and consider changing something so that we can be in a closer to God.  Yet, I think that scares us and we often avoid that opportunity Lent gives us.  Many of us have the same relationship with God now, that we had has children.  God has spent all of human existence evolving and finding ways to be closer to us. Lent is 6 weeks long.  Maybe, just maybe if God can spend an eternity changing, we can take this 6 weeks, to change one small thing, to remove one barrier between us and God. If God can change—can’t we?