Video of July 19th Sermon

Link to video of the sermon:
No Walls Needed

Christ as the Foundation-No Walls Needed: July 19,2015

Pentecost 7, Year B                                                  

Ephesians 2:11-22                                                                   

            When I first arrived at St. John’s, a lot of people were baffled by the fact that I lived in Norfolk.  Even after explaining the reasons (I prefer to live with my husband), people still seemed aghast.  I know that part of it is the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (Herbert), but it is more than that.  It is almost like Norfolk is a different world.  You might not know this but Herbert is technically in Hampton, which means I live 4 miles from Hampton and 9 miles from the church.  This is not an insurmountable distance.  But it’s not about the distance.  It’s the culture.  I lived in Norfolk for 8 years before I started at St. John’s and I had been to Hampton 5 times.  It is amazing what a bridge can divide.  It’s not just bridges that divide us.  Norfolk and Virginia Beach are right next to each other and they are entirely different places.  Virginia Beach doesn’t want to connect to the Norfolk light rail because they know that will make it easier for Norfolk people to get to Virginia Beach and they don’t want us there.  These are obvious divisions, divisions that we can see on a map.  But there are a lot more divisions in Hampton roads. There are the divisions between white and black, poor and rich, military and civilian, Virginia Tech and University of Virginia…. This is certainly not unique to Hampton roads, nor is it unique to this moment in time. 

            The division in the first century was primarily between the Jews and the Gentiles, the circumcised and everyone else.  The differences between Jew and Gentile were not just differences of religion, but culture and national identity.  The Gentiles hated the Jews because their customs were strange.   They had rules about circumcision, what could be done on the Sabbath, what could be eaten and who could be worshiped.  Even to Christians today, some of these rules seem extreme.  On the other side, the Jews had absolutely no respect for the Gentiles.  The Jews were the chosen people…chosen by God.  Despite the fact that they were a people without country they had a seemingly indomitable national pride.  They were committed to the rules of the Torah and the rules of the rabbis.  This allowed them to judge anyone who did not follow these rules.   There was a metaphorical wall that divided them and a solid wall as well. 

            The temple of the Jews was a holy place.  Jews believed it was the home of God.  There was a wall that surrounded the temple and then a courtyard outside.  It was this courtyard where the Gentiles were allowed.  On the wall surrounding the temple was an inscription that read: "No foreigner may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue.”   Any non-Jew who entered that holy area could be killed.  

            Jesus was not one to tolerate such walls of division.  In the Gospel of Mark, we have already heard that he went into Gentile territory to teach and to heal.  Yet even he could not eliminate these divisions, not in his short life.  The disciples and those who came after him worked hard to break down these walls, both real and imagined.   The apostle Paul was a Jew.  He honored the Jewish law.  But he also knew that Christ was calling him and others to move past these walls that surrounded them.  So he preached to all, Jews and Gentiles alike.  In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote, “For [Jesus] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” 

There are disagreements regarding the wall  that Paul is referring to.  Some think he was referring to the actual wall that separated the temple from the courtyard.  Others think that he was referring to the laws that the Jews interpreted in such a way that kept people away from God, away from Jesus.  I am not sure it makes much of a difference.  The point is that there was something real that was separating one group from another.  The life and death of Jesus provided an opportunity.  It started the dismantling process.  It was Jesus blood that ran through this crumbled barrier and brought two enemies face to face. 

            We sometimes depict the death of Christ as a victory.  That language is misleading.  There was no triumph in the violence that caused his death.  The triumph was what came after.  The triumph was the resurrection.  We tend to want to skip over the difficult parts, the parts that make us uneasy. We think we can break down a wall without actually dismantling a thing.  Jesus was beaten and then broken on a cross.  His body was broken….not just for us, but for all people, the people in Norfolk, the people in Virginia Beach, the people who left the Episcopal Church because they did not like the 1979 prayer book, the people who left because they did not like the ordination of women, the people who stayed and considered themselves the victors, the people who stayed because the Episcopal Church was their home….his body was broken for all of us. 

            I know there are some of us who are not pleased about the Episcopal Church’s stance on same sex marriage.  There are some people who are joyful.  There are some who are in the middle.  Most of us who have seen division in the church are anxious, anxious about what this all means.  We no longer have literal walls around our holy places.  Anyone can approach the altar.  Anyone can worship here.  The walls we have now are more subtle and nuanced.  They are protective walls, walls that we hope will keep us safe.    We need to talk about the walls.  Not talking about them will not make them go away.  We’ll just keep running into them until we are battered and beaten and no closer to the love of Christ. 

            I know that there is fear that if walls come down the whole structure comes down, but this is not so. If our foundation is firm, if our foundation has Jesus Christ as the corner stone, then we don’t need these walls dividing our holy places.  Look at this holy place. Do you see walls between us?  And yet this building continues to stand, through wars, hurricanes, floods and even a rector who lives in Norfolk.   Paul wrote, “In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in who you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” 

I do not know what is coming.  I really do not.  I do not know what is on the horizon for St. John’s, the Episcopal Church, or even our nation.  But I know this.  Together, we are stronger.  Even when we disagree….we are stronger together.  Outside of this holy place, we depend on common interests and alliances bringing us together.  But here, in this holy place we depend on something so rudimentary, so very uncultured that we don’t even like to say it very loud.  We depend on the blood of Christ.  Jesus was not broken so that we could build more walls and live in our own privately holy places.  He was broken so that we could come together, into one whole and holy body. 

Instead of building walls or maintaining the ones that we have, let us build one another up.  Let us support one another in our desire to be closer to God and closer to one another.  That is how we achieve peace.  We will never agree on everything.   That is not what brings peace.  Peace comes with the ability to love one another even when we are disagree….even when we don’t like one another, we love one another.  Jesus didn’t die so we could all just get along.  Jesus died so we could live with one another, not divided by walls.  Break down the walls. 

Put on Your Dancing Shoes! July 12, 2015

2 Samuel 6: 1-19                                                                       
Year B, Pentecost 7                                                                          

            The stories of King David are great stories for children.  There is drama, adventure and intrigue.  There are winners and losers.  There is music and dancing.  You really can’t ask for anything better than that for children. Yet when you really delve into the stories of  David, things get a little more complicated.  In children’s stories, David is always the hero.  He is always the good guy.  But when we look at all the stories together (the big picture), we find that is not the case.  David, like most people, is a bit of a mixed bag.  There are some who want to raise him up as an exemplar of a servant of God.  There are others who want to demonize him because of some of his more blatant sins (of which there is no shortage).  Many people just take him for what we he was, a human who sinned and relied on God’s love and forgiveness. 

                David is most commonly known as one of the great kings of Israel.  He was handpicked by God to replace King Saul.  He was a great warrior and succeeded in uniting two different kingdoms.  He took control of Jerusalem and brought the holy ark into Jerusalem…making Jerusalem the dwelling place of God.  That is where our reading for today picks up…the ark’s entrance into Jerusalem.  However, you will note if you look at our reading for today, it leaves out about 6 verses.  In the first five verses, we hear of David and the chosen men of Israel moving the ark.  David and all the house of Israel were dancing in front of the ark.  There were lyres, harps, tambourines and castanets.  It was quite a party.  Then something strange happened. The oxen pulling the ark stumbled and Uzzah who was walking beside the ark reached out his hand to steady the ark.  He was immediately struck dead because God was mad that he touched the ark.   It seems like a bit of an overreaction. One can understand why the people who put together the lectionary took this section out of our reading.  It’s troubling.  And it’s not just troubling to us today; it was upsetting to the group of people who were carrying this ark.  Here they were, trying to carry the ark of God, the presence of God and one person got killed just for reaching out his hand to steady it.

                As a result of the sudden death of Uzzah, David became afraid and angry at God, which is rarely a good combination.  He decided that this ark was dangerous and there was no way he was bringing this dangerous thing into his city.  So he left it with someone else and returned to Jerusalem without the ark.   He left it with this person for 3 months and during that time this person received many blessings… which of course made David want the ark again.   He had either forgotten that it was dangerous, or perhaps it was now worth the danger because the potential blessings it could bestow. 

                That is where we pick back up with our reading for today.  Once again we find David dancing and leaping before the ark as it was carried into Jerusalem.  Before he entered Jerusalem he stopped and made a sacrifice to God just to make sure that he would stay in God’s good graces.  It would seem that all was well in the world again.  But then we have another piece that seems completely out of left field.  Michal, who is referred to as the daughter of Saul, saw David doing his dance and she despised him in her heart.   Saul was the king before David and David defeated him in battle.  So one can understand why Saul’s daughter might not be super fond of David.  But….Michal was also David’s wife. She had saved David from her father.  She loved David.  After our reading ends, Michal confronts David and tells him that he was not honoring God, he was honoring himself and he was doing it like any vulgar person might, quite scantily clad.  This is the last we hear from Michal.

                You might be wondering why I chose to share all this.  I could have left it the way it was, a joyful dance before the presence of the Lord.  And I thought about that. I was going to talk about joy and what it is to be completely joyful before the Lord.   But I realized that was not really what this was about.  That would not have been true to the spirit of the text.  You all deserve the full story, not just the parts that are easy to digest.

                The truth is that God doesn’t always act in ways that we understand.  There are a lot of theories about why Uzzah was struck dead.  It was a display of the power of God.  Or, the wrong people were carrying the ark and that displeased God.  Or they were not treating the ark with the respect that it deserved.   While those are noble attempts at understanding the actions of God, they don’t make a whole lot of sense. I am not sure anything explains it.  Sometimes, we have to live with the ambiguity of a God that is all powerful and completely incomprehensible.   I am not saying that we need to worry about God striking us down because we upset him, but it is important that we remember that God is always in charge and if we try to wrestle God for power, we will most surely lose that match.

The other truth is that sometimes the most faithful people choose the easy road.  They realize that their walk with God is about to get a little dicey and so they let go of God…just for awhile and then they pick God back up when it is more convenient, less dangerous.   While David was not punished for dropping God off with a neighbor, he missed out on 3 months of blessings…3 months when he could have been in the presence of God.  We all have moments when we are faced with a decision.  We can either keep walking with God knowing that it might make things difficult.  It might make us unpopular.  Or we can let God take a back seat for awhile because really….we already have too much on our plate.  Things are already difficult enough without having to please God.  We have to please enough people…we just need a break.  That might very well happen, because none of us are perfect and neither was David.  The important thing is that instead of waiting an even longer time (we already took 3 months off, what’s 3 more?) instead, we return to God…will all our heart, all our energy.

                The story says that David was dancing with all his might.   Michal thought he was showing off and making a spectacle of himself, but I think he was just trying to make up for some lost time.  He was trying to pack three months of praising God into one long dance.  I admire that effort.  It is a noble aspiration.  There will be times when we have more joy than we know what to do with. The important thing is that we hold that joy in our heart so that the next time the road with Christ gets a little bumpy and the dance becomes a crawl…we remember that joyful dance, maybe even listen to the music that went along with the dance. Because the truth is that dancing with God (even on a really difficult road) is a lot easier than crawling without him. So let’s put on our dancing shoes. 

No sermon this Sunday

I did not preach this Sunday.  Jan Brown, our intern deacon, preached.  She did a wonderful job and I am grateful as it gave me a great chance to recover from General Convention.  I plan to write some reflections on my experience at General Convention (or maybe just 1).  Until then....happy 4th of July!