Inclusivity Requires Humility: Sept 27

Year A, Pentecost 18                                               Philippians 2:1-13                                                                                                

                In this reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see an area where Paul really shines…and that is when he’s talking about how to be a community of faith.  Paul has a variety of advice on how we work for unity within a community. In the reading we have today, he emphasizes that one of the ways we can truly be a healthy community is by sharing in the same Spirit -- doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility. That’s not easy advice, is it?  We have witnessed a serious lack of humility in all kinds of places.  It feels like more so recently, but perhaps I am just more aware now. 

            “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” You know that riddle? Could God create a bolder that even God could not move?  Turns out…the answer is yes.  God emptied Godself when he was born as a human on this earth.  God took on all the human frailty that we share.  God inhabited a body that was capable of sickness and pain.  He needed sleep and rest just like the rest of us.  God didn’t have to make Jesus a real human.  God could have created someone that looked like a human and sounded like a human, but didn’t have any human frailty.

            That was aa big debate in the early church. Was Jesus a normal human or did he just appear that way?  They could not wrap their heads around a God who would accept the limitations of a human body and would even go so far as to die…to be crucified.  Being crucified was a shameful way to die.  The Romans made it into a public spectacle to humiliate the crucified person and all who were connected to that person.  But when Paul talks about the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus (which he does a fair amount), he doesn’t talk about humiliation. He said that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death---even death on a cross.” Apparently the Greek word that Paul used to describe Jesus’ humility was very unusual.  They think that his use of it was unique…that perhaps he coined it. Later, after Paul died, that Greek word was transformed into an insult.  It was used to describe someone who was weak.

            I have talked about an illness that I experienced 4 years ago probably too often and I am going to talk about it again as it was a formative experience for me. I had a horrible infection in my leg that required multiple surgeries.  After the first surgery, they wanted me to stay in bed for as much as possible.  Usually after surgeries they get you up right away, but that was not the plan for me.  So after two weeks in the hospital they removed all the wrapping on my leg. It was painful as it pulled off a lot of skin.  I cried a lot.  When I was done crying from the pain, I looked at my leg and burst into tears again because my muscles had totally atrophied. I could no longer pick up my leg on my own. I couldn’t believe that I could lose all my strength in two weeks.  That is how frail the human body is. I have never felt so embarrassed by my own weakness.  No matter how much they explained that I would get my strength back, I couldn’t see past my own weakness.  Obviously, I regained my muscle…eventually.  But I have to remind myself sometimes that wasn’t some innate weakness that was unique to me.  It’s just the human body. It totally baffles me that Jesus took that human body…by choice.

            Jesus took on that weakness so he could truly know us.  I believe the hope was that in worshipping a God who had weaknesses, that would empower us to acknowledge our own frailties and weaknesses and maybe identify with one another a little better.  If that was part of the plan, I don’t think it worked.  We still feel this need to pretend that we are all strong and we each got that strength from a combination of good genes, extra hard work and whatever else you want to fill in.  The problem is that when we have that attitude, we then judge others who don’t display strength in the same way we do.  We criticize them for not having enough grit or resilience.  We love our grit in Philadelphia. Grit is great…but we might overdo it a little. 

We don’t reward humility. We reward strength, excellence and confidence.   If that is what we consistently reward, consistently honor in others, then we can’t ever have a truly inclusive community—one where we celebrate having the same mind, the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Because the way we put valuations on others and ourselves is by constantly comparing ourselves to others.  Right? We see that so much in social media right now…but it’s not just on social media. It’s always been like that.  That is what Paul is saying we can’t do in a Christian community.   We can’t determine our own value by putting others down.

            Paul encouraged the Philippians and us to let the same mind be of us in that is in Christ Jesus…who emptied himself. What would that look like…to empty ourselves? I don’t know, but I think it’s worth considering and praying for. When I pray for others and myself, I pray for strength.  I rarely pray for humility.  There is a part of me that thinks that humility just comes from failures and I don’t want any more of them. I feel like I have had my fill.  But that’s not what humility is.  It’s not a consolation prize we get for failing.  Humility is what comes when we voluntarily give up some of our own power or authority so someone else can rise up.  In emptying ourselves, we are allowing someone else to be filled. That is what Jesus did for us and continues to do.  It’s also what we can do for one another. 

            One of the things I love about baptism is that it’s a gift that Jesus gave to us in the way he lived his life, his death and his resurrection.  It’s a gift. There are other denominations that only baptize people when they have the maturity to state what they believe.  We don’t require that.  We baptize people because they are a child of God.  Nora and Mae are special and beloved and I am sure they will do all kinds of wonderful things with their lives.  But that is not why we baptize them.  We baptize them because Jesus already provided this gift. They are children of God, and please, make sure to remind them of that…when nothing else seems to be going well….when they feel like a failure.  Remind them that they are children of God and that matters more than anything else.

 

Transform, not Conform: September 13

Year A, Pentecost 16                                       Romans 14:1-12                                                   

I have been a vegetarian since I was 16. No one else in my family was and my parents were particularly devastated when I told them.  It took my Dad about 10 years to stop attributing every ailment (emotional or physical) to the lack of meat in my diet.  Moving to Southern Virginia was tricky for a vegetarian.  My first church had an annual fundraiser that was a pig roast.  I hated it with a passion and spent the whole afternoon avoiding the roasted pig.  At one potluck, a well meaning parishioner shared the vegetarian meat balls she made for me. I was touched she did this as I knew it was out of her comfort zone.  I ate a few and then asked what was in them.  They were turkey.  She had assumed that counted as vegetarian.  When I interviewed at the church I was at before here, they had a dinner for me.  Somehow, they had learned I was a vegetarian and the entire meal was vegetarian. I was so touched that they all ate the vegetarian meal with me.  It was an incredible display of hospitality. I later learned they had it catered because none of them knew how to make an entire vegetarian meal.   

Whenever this reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans comes up, I am reminded of my years as a vegetarian in very meat centric places.  While Paul does seem to say that vegetarians are weak, his point is a larger one about hospitality and welcome.  That welcome does come with a slight insult… but when you consider it light of the other times Paul talks about weakness, it’s not as bad as it seems. 

I would think that if you heard this part of Paul’s letter to the Romans and had not read very much of Paul’s writings, you might find Paul’s description of people who are “weak in faith” a little off-putting.  On the one hand Paul encourages us not to pass judgment on one another.  Yet isn’t describing someone as “weak in faith” passing judgment?  It would seem so.

Butt consider how Paul talks about weakness in other letters that he wrote.  When he wrote to the Corinthians he wrote of something he described as a thorn in his flesh.  We don’t know what that was, but it was something he perceived as a deficiency or a weakness in himself.  He begged God to take it from him and God responded: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul then resolved to boast more boldly in his weakness. 

For a good portion of Romans and much of his other writings, Paul is preoccupied with how Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians could learn to be a part of one worshipping body.  It’s unlikely that Paul was planning for the long term viability of the Christian church.  He was just trying to find a way to spread the message of Christ as far and wide as he could. 

There were Jews who had started following Christ.  Paul was one of them…as were all of the apostles.  Many of them were still trying to figure out what this looked like.  Did they need to follow all of the rules they had followed as Jews?  Many thought they did.  Some weren’t sure, so they followed them just in case.  That is probably what Paul was talking about when he spoke of those who just ate vegetables.  They abstained from meat because they knew that a lot of the meat that was sold in the market had been sacrificed in pagan rituals.  That meant it was unclean and their Jewish faith told them that they could not eat the meat.

Some of these Jewish Christians felt that those who had never been Jewish should still take on the Jewish customs as well as the new Christian customs.  Paul was of the mind that was not necessary.    What to eat and when to worship were sticking points between these two groups. The “weak in faith” were the ones who could not let go of the old customs and were perhaps…not fully convinced of this new way of being and worshipping.

But here is what is interesting about what Paul was saying…just because one group had different perceptions of what the practice of faith should look like, didn’t mean that the other group needed to correct them or force their way of doing things on them. Remember, a big part of early Christian worship was sharing a meal together…so what people ate together was directly related to worship. Paul was saying: if having meat at a gathering of the faithful makes those who abstain uncomfortable and could potentially cause a crisis of faith, don’t eat meat around them.  That’s why this reading begins with “welcome.” Being welcoming and hospitable isn’t just about being friendly, it’s about meeting someone exactly where they are, with no expectation that they will change to be more like you. 

          At Christ Church, we say, “whoever you are or wherever you are on your journey of faith, you are welcome here.”  That doesn’t come with any unspoken assumptions.  You are welcome here. Hard stop. We don’t mean, you are welcome and once you get the lay of the land, then you can adapt to our customs and be more like us. I have been at churches like that. They want you to feel welcome, but they also want you to be more like them in time.  They will give you a few months, but eventually, you need to conform to their expectations.      

          Today we are handing out information about a program we are embarking on called, “Invite, Welcome and Connect.”  It’s not about being a friendly church…although that is part of it. It’s about being a community where you can be welcome without having to change. It’s about training our current members on how to meet people where they are.  That might mean that we have to change a little—that can be the hard part.  But change brings growth and new ideas and that is the way a church not just survives, but thrives.

          One of my favorite quotes is, “God loves you just the way you are, but God loves you too much to stay that way.”  Being a Christian means that we seek transformation in our world and ourselves. A faith community should be a place that helps you grow, that supports your relationship with Christ.  But there is a difference between supporting someone in their journey of growth and transformation and demanding that someone conform to a specific type of Christian.  We want people to transform, not conform.  We want the whole community to transform together, to create something beautifully and unique.

          I realize that to some, the idea that we have to change to be truly welcoming and loving seems unfair.  Consider what God did when Jesus was born to a woman and became human.  God changed the way that God related to humans. God came to this earth to meet humans exactly where they are. That is an incredible to display of hospitality.  A chapter later in Romans, Paul continued this theme of welcome when he said, “Welcome one another therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”  Invite, Welcome, Connect is a church program…but it’s also more than that.  It’s not simply about growing a church.  It’s about learning how to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.

Strength in Weakness: July 26

 Year A, Pentecost 9                                         Romans 8:26-39                                                                 

I went to a Presbyterian seminary in my early 20s.  I was Roman Catholic at the time and had never once been asked to pray extemporaneously…that means without any preparation. I had been active in a church and college ministry, but that was not something that Catholics did. Presbyterians are much more accustomed to writing their own prayers and often leading prayer without writing it out in advance.  Every week, the women on the 3^rd floor of my dorm would get together for prayer and conversation.  People were called on for opening and closing prayers.  I told them that I wasn’t comfortable with that and asked that they not call on me.  After a few months they said, “Well, can’t you just lead a Catholic prayer that you know?”  We did the Hail Mary, which also felt weird.  I became good at just avoiding it in general.

When I was studying at the Episcopal Seminary I was rarely called on to lead prayer that wasn’t in the prayer book…which meant I didn’t get any practice coming up with my own prayers. At my first clergy conference, the bishop had this fun habit of inviting the newest clergy to lead the prayer before a meal. He asked me and I politely declined…in front of everyone.  There is nothing more terrifying than leading a prayer in front of a bunch of clergy, especially when you are brand new and the youngest one there.  A few years later, one of my colleagues said, “Telling the bishop you wouldn’t pray was one of the craziest things I had ever seen. I didn’t think you would make it to the next clergy conference.”  But here I am, 20 years later.  And you know what…it still makes me nervous when someone asks me to pray out loud….and I am a priest.

          For that reason and at least a few more, I have always loved these words from Paul. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”  Paul was obviously a gifted writer and speaker. If he wasn’t, we wouldn’t still be reading him today.  Yet it would seem, that even he had his moments when he didn’t feel like he could pray.  Maybe it was the times he was imprisoned...or ship wrecked, or beaten.  Those are all possibilities.  Or perhaps, it was those time when he felt that he had to prove himself over and over again, because he wasn’t one of the original apostles. He often felt the need to defend himself as he was one of the few leaders of this very new church who had never even met Jesus when he was still alive. 

It’s impossible to know when it was hardest for him.  I have had times in my life when it was hard, even impossible to pray.  Sometimes when it felt like it should have been hard, the prayer came with ease.  Even as I wrote this sermon, I couldn’t quite pinpoint why sometimes prayer felt impossible, and other times, it flowed like a mighty river, just gushing forth. I share all this because I know a lot of people who perceive that their struggle to pray makes them less of a Christian.  However, I believe that the struggle is what brings us closer to God.  I think the other thing that can bring us closer to God is our ability to acknowledge our weakness and thus our dependence on God.

          Some version of the word “weak” is used 42 times in the New Testament.  32 of those times are in Paul’s letters.  In the Old Testament, weak is only used with negative associations or when talking about the need to help and protect the weak.  What I have always appreciated about Paul is his willingness to acknowledge his own weakness…not as a failure, not even as something that needs to be fixed, but an opportunity to strengthen one’s relationship with God. 

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul talked about a thorn in his flesh…something he begged God to take away from him.  There are a lot of theories about what this thorn might have been, but we really can’t know for sure.  What we know is that it was a thorn that remained his whole life. It was something that he never overcame, never rid himself of.  While God didn’t remove the thorn, God did respond to the prayer. God said “’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” That led Paul to conclude, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

          I am not proud of my refusal to pray out load at my first clergy conference.  My refusal didn’t come from a place of humility or awareness of my weakness.  It came from a place of fear and anxiety…a need that people not judge me on something that I didn’t have time to prepare.  Ironically, about 15 years after that refusal to pray publicly, a friend of mine and I decided to write a book of prayers about our experiences being gravely ill.  Both of us realized that when we were sick and afraid, we couldn’t pray, which was confusing for us because we were both clergy.  You would think if anyone could have figured it out, we could have. 

But it was almost like our training got in the way.  We had forgotten the words of Paul were not just words to preach about, they were words to experience.   We called the book Irreverent Prayers, not because the prayers were actually irreverent, but because the groaning and sighing that we experienced as prayer just didn’t feel reverent or holy.  It felt desperate.  It also felt real, and I think that’s all God really cares about, that our prayers are real and mean something.

          If you are struggling with prayer, then that means you haven’t given up.  If you feel like you can’t find the right words, then that’s when you get to groan or sigh or cry.  If your prayers contain swear words, just don’t say those prayers out loud in a large group. Don’t try to censor yourself before God.  Don’t feel shame for what you want to say or are afraid to say.

Paul wrote, “God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit…” God has already searched our hearts.  God already knows all of us, and God loves us not despite our weakness, but because of our weakness.  Our weaknesses gives God something to work with.

In the Gospels, it was always the proud and the confident that Jesus argued with and was critical of.  It was never the weak and the vulnerable. Jesus never reprimanded someone for genuine questions. The only questions he didn’t like were the ones that were trying to trap or trick him. If you are feeling weak, or afraid, or hopeless—that’s ok.  It’s hard to feel those things, but it doesn’t mean you are not holy or beloved by God.  You were created for holiness and goodness.  Don’t let fear or weakness be a reason to give up. Instead, let it be a reason to invite God into your life in the most authentic way possible.