Divorce and Healing: October 6 2024

     Mark 10:2-16                                                  October 6, 2024

 

                In the other churches where I served, we always had the animal blessing as part of our Sunday morning service that was closest to St Francis day.   On that day, we used different readings than those that were assigned, which means I have never had to preach these texts that come up every three years.  This week, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about how I could avoid this Gospel reading, but I realized that when we have texts like this read aloud, it’s best to preach on them.  I imagine that when some of you heard these words about marriage and divorce, your heart sank a little. Perhaps you thought, you know I have been through enough, do I really need to hear this kind of judgment on Sunday morning?  So I want to start by telling you that this sermon is not going to be explicitly about divorce or why divorce is bad.  The goal is that those who have already suffered through the heartbreak of divorce will find healing rather than judgment.

                Last week I talked about the fact that Jesus was always looking out for the least of these. He was passionate about protecting those who were vulnerable and unfairly treated. The reading we heard today was likely the same day that he warned people against hurting the little ones, the least of these.  For all we know, he’s still holding that child in his arms who he held as an example of the little ones.  My guess is that he wanted to continue talking about caring for the least of these, not the legal loopholes available to men who wanted to divorce. 

                The pharisees wanted to test Jesus. Given that the laws around divorce were a controversial topic and that King Herod had divorced his wife so he could marry another, they figured that they might be able to trick Jesus into saying something that would get him into trouble.  At the time, there were two interpretations of Deuteronomy 24, which says that a man could divorce his wife if he found something objectionable about her.  One of the interpretations allowed a man to divorce his wife for any reason…including bad cooking.  The other interpretation was that the man could only divorce his wife in cases of adultery.  Surely Jesus had an opinion on this important matter of legal loopholes available to men who wanted to divorce their wives. 

                Jesus refused to debate legalities.  He didn’t even want to debate divorce.  Instead he shifted the conversation from divorce to one about the importance of marriage.   Many of the pharisees got twisted up in legalese.  They wanted to know what they could get away with, rather than talk about the intent of marriage.  Jesus brought them away from the law to the intent of the creator—that people would create lifelong unions.  He ends by saying, “Therefore what God has joined together, let one separate.”  We actually quote that in our wedding ceremony and it is my favorite thing to say. 

The Greek text says “no man” rather than “no one.”  I am inclined to think that this is one of those examples where Jesus really means men…because he was talking to men who made the rules about what men could do to get divorced.  At the time, men made the rules and in many places they still do.  There was only one case where a woman could request a divorce and even then, she would still suffer the consequences of the divorce. 

Remember who Jesus was talking about before the pharisees interrupted him, how we care for the vulnerable and the marginalized…the least of these.  Last week I talked about the fact that children had no rights at the time. Women also had few rights and were vulnerable. In most cases, women’s economic stability was dependent on a male relative.  If her husband divorced her, she had few options.  If she was lucky, she would have a male relative who could take care of her.  If she was very lucky and young enough to bare children, she might be able to find another husband. If she did not have those safety nets, she would be impoverished and forced to beg on the streets or prostitute herself. In Jesus discouraging divorce, he was once again protecting the most vulnerable. 

What does that mean for us today?  Divorce is rarely equitable, but it’s more equitable than it was in Jesus’ time.  Would Jesus be as vehemently against divorce now as he was then? I really don’t know.  I suspect if it came up now, he would once again return to the purpose of marriage.  No one goes into a marriage wanting it to end in divorce.  People enter marriages for the purposes of commitment.  And we should honor that commitment as best we can. But we have all seen marriages that needed to end and we have seen beautiful examples of remarriage.  If Jesus was alive today, I don’t think Jesus would be prohibiting people from getting married again.  If you read the text closely, he’s acknowledging that people will get divorced and remarried, but he’s also acknowledging that divorce hurts people.  And just because people are legally divorced, doesn’t mean the marriage never happened.  Jesus is acknowledging that there is brokenness…but there is also healing.

In the Gospel of John, there is a wonderful story of Jesus meeting a woman who had 5 husbands. The text doesn’t say why she had been married that many times, but it seems unlikely (or very unlucky) that 5 husbands died.  What is more likely is that she was divorced that many times because she was infertile.  It was a common reason that men divorced their wives. Jesus sat with this woman who had probably been ostracized and talked to her.  He never condemned her.  He never judged her. He had one of the longest conversations between him and another person in all of scripture.  She then went and told the whole town about him.  She became an evangelist.  Jesus saw past what had stigmatized her and treated her the way he treated his disciples, maybe even better.  That is an example of how Jesus treated people who divorce and remarry.

It is no random thing that right after the pharisees forced Jesus to address divorce he decided to bless the children.  It says that he laid his hands on them.  When Jesus lays his hands on people, that usually means that he is healing them.  Given the way children were often treated at that time, there is no doubt that they needed healing.  We all do.  I think the reason that the Gospel writer put this story of Jesus blessing the children right after Jesus’ words about divorce was to show the reader what really matters.

Jesus came and lived among us for many reasons.  The stories I find most powerful are stories where he sits and listens, when he heals people, not necessarily the external things, but those parts of us that are broken because of whatever has happened in the past or is happening now.  So whether you are existing in a challenging marriage (because let’s admit, all marriages have their challenges), or recovering from a broken one, or soaking in gratitude for your second or third marriage, know that Jesus came not to judge, but to bring love and wholeness to this broken world.   

The little ones: Sept 28, 2024

 Year B, Pentecost 19                                                 Mark 9:38-50                                                                             

                There is nothing like a recommendation to cut a limb off to really start your morning right.   ^‘”If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off…if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off… if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell…”  I think most of us can accept that Jesus doesn’t actually want us to remove limbs and other parts of our bodies.  Speaking hyperbolically was a common form of rhetoric at the time and still is in many ways. However, that doesn’t mean we ignore what Jesus said or dismiss it. Jesus was trying to shock people. He thought this was important enough that he need to scare people into listening.

            Right before he recommended removing limbs, he said, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”  Millstones are big.  At the time, they would have weighed over 3,000 pounds.   This is another example of hyperbole because there is no way someone could put that around their neck and then somehow be thrown into the sea.  But you get the picture. Jesus was saying that it would be better to die than put a stumbling block in front of one of these little ones.              

            Who are the little ones that Jesus is talking about? It’s a good time to consider the context. Right before our text for today, Jesus caught the disciples arguing about who was greatest.  He had just told them he was going to suffer and die. Instead of asking him questions to gain understanding, they simply distracted themselves by arguing about who was better.  Jesus responded by saying, “Whoever wants to be first of all must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a child in his arms and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…” 

            How did the disciples respond…they once again got competitive because someone else was casting out demons in Jesus’ name and this person wasn’t one of the chosen 12.  They wanted Jesus to reprimand that person who was doing good in his name.  Of course Jesus refused and tried to bring them back to what was literally sitting in front of them---a child.  Remember, that was what Jesus was talking about before they changed the subject.  He brought them back from competition, toward a vulnerable child. When he said little ones, he might have been talking about children, or people who might be new to the faith, or people who were vulnerable in some way.  Jesus was always trying to protect and care for the ones who were often ignored.

It might seem odd to us now that Jesus would be especially concerned about children. Everyone loves seeing cute children, especially if they are well behaved and quiet.  The way we treat children in our culture or social circles today is not how all people perceive or treat children.  We are accustomed to seeing our children doted on and loved.  We expect them to have family looking after them.  We are fortunate if that is what we are accustomed to witnessing, but it is certainly not the norm.  It is really only in modern history that children had rights, let alone the exalted place they currently hold in our culture. 

            In the time that Jesus was living in, children were the least of these.  They had no rights.  The mortality rate was high and people could not assume their child would live to be an adult.  Women had lots of children to ensure that at least some would live to carry on the family name and tradition.  Today, if there was a food scarcity, the children would be fed first. In Jesus’, they would have been fed last, if fed at all.  Not only were they not highly regarded, they were a nuisance.  They had to be taken care and could not contribute much to the family.  Therefore when Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…” ---That would have been shocking.  It was not sweet and sentimental.  It was shocking because Jesus was saying that welcoming this child was the same as welcoming him. 

            Notice that Jesus warns them about putting a stumbling block in front of the little ones who believe in him. From this description, we can see he’s focusing on believers, Christians. He is talking to the disciples who will be the ones teaching and leading these new believers when he is gone. This doesn’t mean that Jesus never talked about the importance of caring for all people---he did.  But right here, in this conversation with his disciples, he’s focusing on those who believe in him.

            Who are the little ones today? Obviously, actual children would still be included as “little ones.”  They have more rights than they once had, but are still incredibly vulnerable.  We have seen that in these horrific school shootings. But what about people who are simply new to the faith…or people who have left the faith because they have been deeply wounded by the misuse of Christianity? We need look no further than our LGBTQ+ community to see people who have been incredibly wounded by Christians—especially Christians in leadership. 

Now, you might say, well that’s not us.  That’s those other Christians. Sometimes, but the Episcopal Church has not always been as welcoming as we are now and there are still many Episcopal Churches where the LGBTQ+ community is not welcome.  We have also wounded the African American community with our complicity in slavery and then segregation and frankly, too many things to name.   These “little ones” are everywhere and they still need support rather than stumbling blocks.      

            While this language that Jesus uses is violent and unsettling, it shows us how much Jesus cared about the “little ones” then and now.  He wanted his disciples, the leaders of his future church to look out for those who needed protecting.  And we have failed Jesus again and again in protecting these little ones.  I could give you more examples, but you get the idea. 

            I am not saying that I love this language that Jesus uses, but it does show us how fervently he cared for God’s children—the vulnerable, the oppressed, those on the margins who have been kept out intentionally or by our inattention.  It’s a privilege to serve a God who cares for the least of these, who makes them a priority over and over again.  Jesus was warning against putting up stumbling  blocks, but I think we can do more than  just not trip people.  We can be companions for these little ones.  We can’t just say “all are welcome.”  That is not enough. Instead, we need to find concrete ways to welcome those who Jesus would consider the “little ones.”  Because in welcoming them, we are welcoming Jesus.

 

It's not about being right: Sept 22

Year B, Pentecost 22                                      James 3:13-4:3; 7-8a                                                                                     

                I often hear people bemoan the current political discourse and long for those days of the past when people were more dignified and kind.  I would agree that what we have experienced lately has been toxic, immature, and at times cruel and irresponsible.  I was a political science major in college and have always followed campaigns closely, even as a teenager.   They seemed more civilized back then. I saw a clip recently of a candidate from several election cycles ago respond to someone who said they were scared of what would happen if the other person won.  This candidate defended his opponent and said he was a decent person and not someone to be feared.  Given that fear mongering has become an Olympic sport in our politics today, that response was astonishing to hear now.

Being in the church where our founding fathers worshipped, I hear people occasionally hypothesize what those same founding fathers would think of our current political climate. The assumption of course is that they would be horrified. As a result, I have read a bit about their rhetoric and it wasn’t always as kind and dignified as we might imagine. 

The first contested election was between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.  At the time, candidates couldn’t campaign directly, but they had others who campaigned for them. Apparently Jefferson’s people accused Adams of wanting to be a king and create a dynasty so that his son could succeed him and then nicknamed Adams “his rotundity.”  Adam’s people said that Jefferson would promote incest, adultery and prostitution.  They also spread the rumors of Jefferson’s affair with a woman he enslaved.  There were many other insults that would not be appropriate for church.  I fear that even our founding fathers, who we treat with reverence (perhaps too much reverence) were not always careful with their words.

We have been reading the book of James for 4 weeks and this is our 2^nd week on chapter 3.  In the first half of the chapter, James spoke of the power of the tongue—how such a small part of the body can do so much damage.  The author compared the tongue to a fire, a fire that cannot be tamed.  He wrote, ^“but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God…” It seems hopeless, does it not? If it is impossible to tame (as it would seem in these verses), then what are we to do about it?  Perhaps we can’t even blame those people who speak carelessly or even purposefully hurt others with their words.  They just can’t control their tongue.

Our reading for this Sunday picks up where we left off, but there is a shift.  James is no longer talking about the uncontrollable tongue, but instead, the focus is on wisdom.  You see wisdom is what controls the tongue. It is what is inside you that affects what comes out of our mouth. He then differentiates the wisdom from above versus earthly wisdom.  Earthly wisdom is associated with envy and self ambition. God’s wisdom, the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy…without a trace of partiality and hypocrisy.  Can you imagine how different our world would be if our decisions, our actions and yes, our words—were infused with that kind of wisdom?

I was struck by the words peaceable, gentle, willing to yield.  So often, when we are convinced that we are right (which we so often are) we feel that we have to be forceful with the truth, perhaps even get a little louder—because we have truth on our side.  Why would we yield if we knew that we were right?

          When James differentiates between the wisdom from above and earthly wisdom, it’s natural to assume he’s talking about facts---what is right and what is wrong.  If we are guided by God’s wisdom, then we would know that we are right, that we have the truth on our side. We could be confident in those words and choices—like so many are.

I am not sure it’s about what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.  When James speaks of wisdom, it’s about mercy, gentleness, peace, and righteousness.  It’s more about the way we interact with people that actually displays wisdom and understanding rather than what arguments we win. If we are willing to yield and meet someone half way, we might not always get our way, but we might accomplish something that would otherwise be impossible when we are so entrenched in our conviction of what is right.  When we can listen to the wisdom of others, when we are not so fixated on what is right, then it’s amazing what we can actually learn from one another, the wisdom we can gain.    

          James says that if we are seeking the wisdom from above and living into that wisdom, then “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”  I talked about righteousness a few weeks ago and how we really don’t like that word very much because we associate it with self-righteousness.  At the time, I defined righteousness as being in right relationship with God and our neighbor.  I still stand by that.  However, when I was reading about this section of James, one commentator defined righteousness as: “living as though God were the determiner of who was worth loving and who wasn’t.”[1]   In other words, God is the one who gets to decide who is worth loving. 

That might sound way too obvious, but look at our Gospel reading. The disciples, the ones closest to Jesus, were arguing about who was the greatest.  We spend so much time in our nation, and in our church to a lesser degree, arguing about who is worthy.  Yet what God said over and over again, throughout the entire Bible, is that everyone is worthy of God’s love, and therefore our love.  We are not the arbiters of who deserves love and compassion. When we can admit that, then a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace, for those who make peace. You see peace doesn’t just come to us.  We have to create it.

It’s ok to have strong opinions and be passionate.  Strong opinions and passion can be incredibly motivating, especially when it leads us to positive action on behalf of another.  However, we could accomplish so much if we tried to emulate those characteristics of God’s wisdom—peaceful, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy.  That is what curates wisdom, not the act of being right.

We can critique our politicians (and many times we should) but given that they are never on the receiving end of my sermons, I wonder if we could start closer to home. We can start our pursuit of wisdom in our interactions at work, at school, in our families, with our friends, with others in church.  Those are places that also need peace, gentleness, mercy and some flexibility. And because many of us are tired, weary, and have a little decision fatigue—let’s remember what righteousness is. It’s living as though God were the determiner of who was worth loving—not us.  We do not get to make that decision. God already has.  God’s infinite wisdom has decided that we all are worthy of love and compassion. When we can see that and feel that—then we won’t need to worry as much about the words that are coming out of the mouths of others or ourselves.  All are worthy.

---

[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/doers-of-the-word/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/seventeenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes

The Church belongs to no nation: Sept 15

 Year B, Pentecost 17                                                Mark 8:27-38                                                                                                      

Who do people say that I am?  Compared to most questions that Jesus asks his disciples (or anyone for that matter), that was a fairly easy one.  The disciples were quick to chime in on who other people said he was. They had probably been dying to tell him what people were saying, “Some people think you are John the Baptist—back from the dead! Others think you are Elijah who never actually died, so that seems like a better possibility.  Or you know, you could be any prophet, maybe a brand new prophet.”  

Of course Jesus knew all the rumors—so then came the real question, “Who do you say that I am?”  This time only one person chimed in—Peter. Remember, this was kind of Peter’s thing.  He was eager and earnest, the first one to raise his hand, but not always the first person to think through his answer.  He answered, “You are the Messiah.”  Now, we are used to that title for Jesus.  It just kind of rolls off the tongue for us, but this was a bit of a wild card response at this point in the Gospel of Mark.  While Jesus has healed people, fed thousands and put some religious leaders in their place, calling him the Messiah was a leap.

            The Jewish concept of the Messiah was multifaceted and complex, as we can see from our reading in Isaiah.  But for the sake of a 12 minute sermon, I will provide a broad generalization. The Messiah was expected (by most) to be a strong political leader who would oversee a significant change in the world order.  At the time, many Jews thought that the Messiah would help them overthrow Rome who was occupying Israel at the time.  However, what we see time and  time again from Jesus, was a resistance toward any kind of political leadership.  In the Gospel of John, the author explicitly says that they tried to take him by force to make him king and he slipped away. He didn’t want to be a political leader. He wanted to save people, but not that way.  He would not do anything by force. Thus Peter declaring him to be the Messiah probably surprised the other disciples.

            Peter, even with his tendency to stick his foot in his mouth and speak before thinking—saw something in Jesus that many others didn’t.  He saw this man was more than just a miracle worker or a prophet.  He was someone who would change the world.  We see a slightly different version of this story in the Gospel of Matthew.  In that version, Jesus praised Peter for this revelation and told him that he would be the rock on which he built his church, which makes this next interaction with Peter that much more bizarre. 

            As soon as Peter confirmed Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus started talking about how the Son of Man would have to suffer, be rejected, be killed and then on the 3^rd day rise again.  At this point, Peter took him to the side and rebuked him.  Rebuke is a strong word, especially in Mark. Typically, it is demons who are rebuked.  So right after Peter is commended for recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, he is rebuking that Messiah because he doesn’t like what he’s hearing.  In turn, Jesus tells him, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

            Since we rarely talk about Satan in the Episcopal Church, I want to stop here for a moment.  When we hear the term Satan, it’s easy to get distracted by that visual of the man in the red suit with horns and a tail.  Instead, let’s focus on what Satan does in the Gospels.  Satan tempts.  Satan is an adversary.  Here Jesus is not telling Peter that he is the prince of darkness and the epitome of all that is evil.  He’s telling him that he’s tempting him and contradicting him. 

While Peter seemed to get the right answer about who Jesus was when he declared him to be the Messiah, he didn’t quite understand the distinction between the kind of Messiah Jesus was and the Messiah most people expected and wanted.  He wanted the powerful Messiah who would crush the enemy and lead his people to victory.  He didn’t want the suffering messiah, the one who is killed by the very people he is supposed to defeat. 

While Jesus understood that this was his path and had accepted it, I doubt that was what he wanted.  We know this because later in the Gospel, Jesus begged God to “take this cup away” from him.  He didn’t want to be crucified. Jesus was not one to take the easy way, but I imagine he would have been open to an easier way if that had been God’s will.  That’s why he was so angry at Peter, because Peter was trying to tell him, there was another way, a way where he could be the powerful messiah who did not have to suffer.

            That is what most leaders want.  They want power, but without the suffering or sacrificing. One of the buzz words (or phrases) that we have been hearing a lot about recently is Christian Nationalism.  Frankly, I am not sure that a lot of people know what they mean when they say it and I fear it’s been weaponized in ways that are not helpful.  I personally can’t separate my faith from who I am when I am talking about politics or voting.  I think there should be a place for our faith in our nation. What concerns me is when people act like Christianity should have a place of privilege in our nation. It did for a very long time…but here’s why I have a problem with those who want to bring that privilege place back.  Our Christian faith is not supposed to be about power and privilege. Our Messiah was killed on a cross by the people in power. 

            Jesus said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?” Does that sound like Jesus was trying to create a faith for powerful and important people? Christianity was built on death, loss and sacrificial love.  When Jesus was killed by the Romans, they thought he was a failure.  Even after he rose again, he didn’t hold a massive rally where he announced his victory and celebrated.  He appeared to a small group of disciples and empowered them to spread the Gospel message. 

            Does that mean we should pretend that our faith isn’t important?  Does that mean we should compartmentalize our faith or make it so tepid that it can’t possibly have a place in this nation and world? Of course not.  Our faith. Our God---is everything.  But the power of our faith is not in prestige or dominance.  It’s in the lives that it can change, the love that can be shared, the transformation it can bring.  That question that Jesus asked his disciples is the same question we must ask ourselves today.  Who is Jesus to you? We get so bent out of shape on how others are misrepresenting Jesus, we forget to consider who he is to us and what we are doing to help others know this Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior who we believe in.

            I hear outside tour guides sometimes describe Christ Church as “the nation’s church” and I don’t really feel comfortable with that.  This is God’s Church.  We are in God’s church.  It belongs to no nation. We belong to God.

Why did Jesus say that?: Sept 8, 2024

 Year B, Pentecost 16                                       Mark 7:24-37                                                

As most of you know, the readings we have on Sundays rotate on a three year cycle. Every three years at about this time, we get this Gospel reading. There is another version of this story in The Gospel of Matthew, which means this story of the mother seeking healing for her daughter has popped up 12 times during  my ordained ministry.  There have been one or two times when I have preached a different text because I was weary of tackling this story, and then someone always asks me why I didn’t preach about Jesus calling a desperate mother a dog. I have realized if this text is read, it has to be preached upon because it is such an abrasive text. 

            I would like to tell you that in my many years of preaching this, I have been able to hone my message and come up with the perfect take on this complicated text. But I think it’s actually gotten harder.  Over the years I have read commentaries that provide an explanation that made just enough sense.  One was that Jesus was testing this woman. He wanted to see her fiery response and she passed that test with flying colors.  The other popular take is that this is a beautiful example of Jesus learning from a human. It displays his humility and vulnerability. I still like that explanation…but none of the explanations I have read adequately explain why Jesus insulted someone by using a slur.

We learn early on that Jesus was in Tyre, which was Gentile territory.  Jesus was a Jew and just the fact that he was there was unusual.  Yet we have come to expect that from Jesus— have we not?  We stress (especially in the Episcopal Church) that Jesus was someone who broke down the barriers that divided people.  He loved everyone and showed no partiality. 

If that is true, then why would he say, “Let the children be fed first, for it’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” The children represented the Jewish people. Up until now, Jesus had spent most of his time with other Jews.  He was a devout Jew, as were his chosen disciples.  The Gentiles were the dogs. That’s what many Jews called them. Jesus was simply repeating what he heard so many other say.

He wasn’t saying that the Gentiles were completely undeserving.  He was saying that the Jews were the priority.  That’s not so bad, right? Well I guess it’s not so bad if you are a Gentile who is healthy and not asking for healing for your possessed daughter.  But this woman was desperate.  She had already broken some serious rules when she went into a stranger’s house and addressed a man who she didn’t know.  Forget the Gentile/Jew divide for a minute.  Women were not meant to speak to men who were not related to them, especially if they were alone.  She was taking a huge risk in approaching Jesus when he was alone in a house. So yes, being told in that moment that her sick daughter was not a priority because she was not the right ethnicity was more than just an insult or a slap in the face.  It was cruel. 

I don’t know the mind of Jesus and I am not going to try to explain that insult away.  Instead, let’s try to put it to the side for a moment and focus on what comes next.  This woman, who was already in an incredibly perilous position, argued with a rabbi and a miracle worker.  She used an interesting technique.  She didn’t tell him that it wasn’t fair and that he was biased. She didn’t try to prove that she or her daughter were worthy of his power.  She didn’t beg him for compassion or mercy, which is the route I would have taken. 

No, she pointed out that his power was so abundant, that even a small morsel would be enough for her and her daughter. She reminded him that that there was more than enough of his love and mercy to share.  Remember what happened in the previous chapter—Jesus fed a crowd of 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish and there were leftovers…12 baskets of leftovers.  When it comes to Jesus’ love—there is always more than enough. What is amazing is that this woman knew that.  She knew that better than most of us.

Jesus was planning to share his message and love with the Gentiles. That is why he was in Gentile territory.  In going to Tyre, he was off the beaten path. There was no good reason to be there, unless he was planning to expand his mission.  Only a few verses earlier he had told the Pharisees that there was no food that was clean or unclean, which was a huge point of contention between the Jews and Gentiles.  He had already begun laying the ground work.  What she did was accelerated his ministry to the Gentiles. He told her “not yet” and she responded, “we need you now.”  Some things can’t wait.[1]

The Gospel of Matthew tells a similar story, except in Matthew the woman is commended for her faith and then told her that her daughter was healed.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.”  In Mark, she is commended for her grit and her determination, but also her insight into who he was.  She saw what even his disciples could not always see, that his power and his love were limitless.  It did not have to be focused on a certain group, it could be shared with the world. 

I believe that is an important message for us today as well. We live with such a scarcity mindset, not just when we talk about money and resources, but when we talk about who God’s message can reach.  I do it as well. I think, well that person or group would not possibly be responsive to the Gospel message. I tell myself, “It’s not that I don’t want to share with those people, it’s that they would not be responsive. It would be a waste.”

When we put a limit on who we think our faith can reach, we impose that restraint on God. We limit the reach of God, when that reach should be and can be limitless.  It’s time that we stop restraining the reach of God.  It’s time for us to stop worrying about how others will judge us and instead focus on how we can share the abundance of what God has given us. Because there is always enough. God doesn’t limit us. We limit God.  It’s time to stop with the limits and open ourselves and others to the relentless and boundless love and mercy of God.   

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[1] A lot of these ideas came from Dr. Matt Skinner from a working preacher podcast.  You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiQqStpruhw

The Pharisee in us: Sept 1 2024

 Year B, Pentecost 15                                               Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23                                                                                                              

            Over the last month and a half, we have been reading from the Gospel of John. The Gospel of Mark is a welcome reprieve from the theology of John. However, it’s a little unsettling to be suddenly dropped in the middle of an argument between Jesus and the Pharisees.  Let me provide a recap of the chapter that preceded our Gospel reading for today. It’s been a busy time for Jesus and his disciples. He fed the 5000, he walked on water and healed a bunch of people.  That was just the 2^nd half of chapter 6.  As a result, Jesus was a rising star, which meant that his actions and the actions of his disciples were more closely scrutinized then they had previously been.

          Who better to scrutinize actions and make judgments than the Pharisees and Scribes?  These men were the experts in the laws and the rules around the laws. They had dedicated their lives to the study of these laws. It was their job to explain the laws to people and make sure that people were following them. Often times, they get a bad rap and I am not sure it is always merited. 

A lot of people like to paint Jesus as this anti-establishment rebel who was trying to change the Jewish faith and dismantle the institution.  But this was not what he was doing.  He was trying to get them to go back to the basics, consider what the important things were  The laws of the Jewish people were the 10 Commandments and the first 5 books of the Hebrew scriptures (what we call the Old Testament).  However, over the years leaders of the faith built up rituals and traditions to protect these laws.

Many people compare these rituals and traditions to a fence.  They built a fence around the laws so they could protect the people from breaking the laws.  This fence became so high and so dense, that people sometimes forgot there was something behind it.  This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “You abandon the commandment of God and hold on to human tradition.”

The rule that the disciples were breaking in this story was not a law.  It was a ritual that had been created by religious leaders over hundreds of years.  It was not for cleanliness, it was ceremonial.  It came out of the act of thanksgiving, like how we say grace before a meal.   It started for good reasons. They wanted to recognize that every meal was an opportunity to give thanks and an opportunity for religious fellowship.  Then some people got so obsessed with the ritual, they put more emphasis on that than the thanksgiving and fellowship.  Jesus was showing them that they could still give thanks and have fellowship without all these add ons.

Thankfully getting lost in the details never happens in Christians Churches.  We never create traditions and rituals and forget the reason behind the tradition.  We never get upset when something changes.  No one has ever said, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Of course we do.  We also have our own oral laws (or what Mark refers to as the tradition of the elders).  Some of our traditions have been honed over 100s of years.  But some have only been around for 5 or 10 years. It is amazing how quickly traditions can take root in the church.

Unfortunately when we acknowledge that we sometimes cling to our traditions, I have to admit that the clergy are often the Pharisees.  As a clergy person, I am the one who makes sure that the things we do in the service are liturgically proper.  This was part of my seminary training.  Let me show you an example some of these Episcopal oral laws that have been written down. 

*These are essentially text books.  They tell you how to stand, when to kneel, when to cross yourself. They don’t all agree.

*These  books are full of Episcopal vocabulary.  That’s right.  Many of these are words that we made up.  We had to memorize them and I have forgotten at least 50%. 

*This is a commentary on the Book of Common Prayer.  It tells you what all the things in italics really mean. 

Now some of these things are helpful, some of them even necessary.  But a lot is just unnecessary detail. Many clergy will disagree with me on that…and they are the one who own more of these books. Yet it’s not just the clergy who guard tradition---we all do. Some of these traditions that we guard are shared by many churches and some are specific to individual churches.  Christ Church is less pre-occupied with liturgical traditions because that isn’t really where the emphasis is.  But we have a default traditions that are based on what we don’t do.  Or we have traditions based on the building itself…because it’s historic.  The walls have to be a certain color.  If you came in and were disturbed by all the random stuff we have in here for the On Buried Ground performance, it’s because you are used to the ways things usually look. It’s unnerving to me as well and I’ve only been here 11 month.

The traditions that we have, come from a rich history and the great majority of them have a holy and profound purpose.  The problem comes when our commitment to these traditions gets in the way of how we love our neighbor or when we spend more time arguing about the rules than we spend actually doing the work God has called us to do.  That is when these rules and traditions are dangerous. 

The Pharisees were upset because the disciples were eating with defiled hands.  This is not because their hands were literally dirty. Their hands were defiled because they had not been ritually cleansed.  Some pharisees couldn’t recognize the good work that Jesus and his disciples were doing because they were concerned with how it all looked, how it reflected on them.  They were so focused on the change itself, they never noticed the positive outcome of that change. They could not see the people who were drawn to Jesus because he didn’t worry about laws that determine ritual cleanliness.

          There is a point in our spiritual journey, when we should look for the Pharisee within us.   You might think “I don’t have any Pharisee in me. I am not worried church traditions.” But consider what is underneath the need to protect traditions. It sometimes comes from a desire to defend what is sacred.  Sometimes, it just comes from not wanting to change.  Any of you have issues with change? I am not just talking about church—but any change.  I struggle with change, and I have had a lot over the last year. The hard part of change is that is usually involves some kind of loss.  It might lead to something good, but it can be hard to get past the loss.

          Just like the Pharisees built a fence around the law, we have built fences around our hearts.  Jesus was not only concerned about the heart of the law, he was and is concerned about the heart of each one of us.  Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” 

When we become too comfortable in our life and our faith, when the status quo becomes our creed, then we will become stagnant. It means that we have become too attached to what once was rather than what could be.  Sometimes it feels like we have protect the church and in doing so, we are protecting God.  But God doesn’t need our protection.   In fact, God needs us to be a little more fearless, a little more open to the unknown.  Let us walk boldly forward.  May our traditions be something that grounds us, but doesn’t bind us.

 

 

Preaching with a broken heart: August 25

 Year B, Pentecost 14                                     Psalm 34:15-22 & John 6:56-69                                             

I can’t remember where I read it, some important preaching professor no doubt--- said that preachers must preach from our scars and not our wounds.  The idea is that we don’t unload our issues onto our congregation.  We can talk about that which troubles us, but only after we have reached some resolution.  It’s wise advice, and advice I have followed for many years.  But like all sage advice, there are exceptions.  One of my very dear friends died of lung cancer last Saturday.  She was my first priest friend and then became my go to for all things.  We started a writing group together and many years later, we wrote a book together about our experiences with illness and our irreverent prayers that came out of those illnesses. 

Unfortunately her lung cancer returned while we were writing.  Even after she was moved to stage 4 lung cancer, she continued to preach and write.  She wrote about the axiom of preaching from our scars rather than our wounds. She said she no longer had the luxury of preaching from scars---because her wounds would not heal.  That made sense given her situation, but I thought I would stick with that advice until I couldn’t anymore.

Then I read the psalm for today.  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and will save those whose spirits are crushed.”  When people have asked me how I am over the last week, my answer has typically been, “My heart is broken.”  Obviously this is not the first grief I have experienced in my life.  But it’s been particularly acute.  She was someone I communicated with multiple times a day.  She knew the worst things about me and celebrated the best things.   I like to think I did the same for her.  A friend of mine who is a grief counselor said that when you lose someone that close it’s like someone cuts a hole out of a piece of a quilt and that quilt is the story of your life….it’s like part of your story is gone and you don’t really know how to start writing again.

I am not afraid to admit to myself or you that I am angry at God. I know that good people die tragically long before their time, every minute of every day.  There are some clergy out there who preach the prosperity Gospel.  That is the idea that if you are good, if you love and serve God and of course give money to that preacher, good things will come to you. You will be compensated not only with a good life, but also with material goods.  It’s a complete heresy and contrary to so much of scripture, but it’s a convenient message and a popular one if that is what you need to believe. 

Yet this Psalm shows us that’s not how it always works.  “The Lord is near the brokenhearted…” That means followers of God still have their hearts broken, sometimes over and over again… It then says that “Many are the troubles of the righteous…”  It doesn’t get more direct than that.   Good people, righteous have troubles, many troubles. Most people are not comfortable calling themselves righteous. We associate it with being self righteous. Or we just don’t think we are worthy of being called righteous. In the Bible righteousness is more about the relationship between the person and God, or the person and others.  It’s right relationship.  It’s ok to associate yourself with the righteous—even if you have not yet achieved perfection.

  Unfortunately suffering is a reality for most us.  No one goes through life without suffering.  Sometimes I even wonder if being Christian brings us more suffering.  It’s not a great advertisement for Christianity.  I would never be an effective mega pastor.  It’s not that being Christian brings more bad things upon us---it just that our hearts become more malleable. We are more vulnerable to heartbreak.  If you never love, if you never open your heart to another, your heart will never be broken. 

So what does it mean that God is close to those who are broken hearted? That probably brings comfort to many, but I worry that shames some people. They think, if I don’t feel God’s presence when I suffer or when I am broken hearted, there must be something wrong with me.  I must not be righteous enough. 

The reason that Elizabeth and I decided to write our book together is because we both realized that when we were in the hospital---when we were the most vulnerable, we felt the furthest from God.  We could not pray.  We decided to write prayers that we would have wanted to pray, or we would have wanted others to pray for us. Please, hear me when I say, it’s ok if you when you suffer, you don’t feel close to God.  It’s not your fault. You are not a bad Christian.  You don’t lack righteousness.  Sometimes, you just need the prayers of others to lift you---which is why a Christian community is so vital.  The prayers of others can carry you when your own prayers feel as though they are falling on deaf ears, or when you can’t pray---when your broken heart doesn’t bring you any closer to God.

Over the last week, I realized that I was talking to God all the time. I was raised Roman Catholic.  We were taught that the saints interceded for us on behalf of God.  As Episcopalians, we believe that all Christians are saints…not just the perfect Christians who rarely sin, but all Christians.  My friend Elizabeth always advocated for those she loved, and she didn’t care who she upset doing it.  I realized that she’s with God, interceding in all my prayers. It made me want to pray more, talk to God more. That was one of the last gifts she gave to me.

We are on our 5^th week of the 6^th chapter of John’s Gospel.  We have been hearing about Jesus being the bread of life for 6 weeks.  It’s a long time to talk about the bread of life.  In our reading for today, the disciples said, “This teaching is difficult, who can accept it.” Jesus then said a few more difficult things, because he was never one to make things easy on people.  Then, realizing that many people in the crowd had left because it was too much for them, he asked his 12 disciples if they also wanted to leave. Peter replied, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

There are many times I have struggled with my faith over the years.  In the end, I believe that while Jesus never makes my life easier, Jesus has the words of eternal life.  And while so many people in this world come and go, Jesus has the words of eternal life. Jesus will save those whose spirits are crushed.