John 9:35-41
On a Friday night in the fall of October 2009, I found myself driving home from one of our mountain cities. I had been away from home all week because after 4+ years one of my civil cases had reached the trial stage. The trial ended late Friday and all I wanted to do was get home. The trial had not ended the way I or my clients desired and I felt hopeless. So I drove in complete silence heading toward Greensboro. As I drove, my anger seemed to grow over the injustice I had just been exposed to. Most people tend to think that those involved in court cases are only focused on one of two things, winning or losing. Those who focus only on winning or losing seem to forget about the losses quickly and revel in the victories for longer periods of time. Maybe this is one reason so many people continue to participate in such a system, and truth be told, there are days I wished I could think like that. Maybe that would have made life a little easier, but I’ll never really know because caring only about winning or losing is not who I am. Rarely, if ever, was my focus directed toward winning or losing a case, not because I didn’t want to win because trust me, I did. My focus was then, and continues to be today, on the bigger picture of life and justice, and on this particular night, I silently promised myself that I would never voluntarily step foot in a courtroom again. The thing is, each step of my journey into law offered me glimpses into the way people so easily disregard others and how easy it seems for some to believe it is within their right to determine what is true and what is false both in their life and the lives of others. I noticed something when this happened and I didn’t like it. I noticed that one person’s lived story vanished and was replaced by the story someone else projected onto them. It was as though their real lived story was a figment of their imagination, while the story projected onto them became the known story. Each and every time I saw this happen, or even experienced it myself, I boiled inside because I believe there is something rather cruel about someone having their true lived story reduced to lies and fantasies, while the more dominant or louder person’s projected fictitious story is substituted in its place. I never liked it. Not when I experienced it, but especially not when someone of a smaller stature in life, or minimal financial means, was subjected to it. This made me especially mad like I was that October night in 2009. You see, I had spent over 4 years of my life telling my clients to believe in the system. Over and over I said things like once people, independent from your facts heard their story, they would believe them. And my clients decided to trust my words, and trust me. Each and every time someone called my clients liars or fakes they held tight to my words that we would find that group of independent people. No part of the journey was easy, especially not for my clients and their families who they lost everything. There were times when it seemed their decision to finally step forward and tell their true lived story only brought more shame and ridicule and rejection. Yet they continued on… even as friendships were destroyed, homes lost and businesses closed, they kept moving forward on this journey. Then sadly, tragically that Friday in October of 2009 my clients and their families heard for the last time that no one believed their story. When that independent group of people (the jury) came back with their decision in favor of the large wealthy corporate defendants, devastation doesn’t even describe the feeling. Those wealthy corporate defendants who loudly and forcefully called my clients liars, without ever offering a separate version of events… who loudly and forcefully claimed everything my clients and their families said (under oath mind you) was fake. They were believed. Maybe you can tell that I still haven’t fully processed all of this and you want to know something, I am OK with my inability to process things like this quickly. The fact remains that no one has the right to tell me that I should not be bothered by knowing how easily one can dictate what is believed about someone else. I still feel mad when I recount this event, but then, as though fitting together perfectly, I am face to face with this particular scripture which compels me to dig a bit deeper into my own understanding. This entire chapter of John’s Gospel revolves around Jesus and the Blind Man because in everyone else’s mind they are the only “sinners” in it. The man’s sin, if you recall from earlier this year, was being born blind which in his day was a sure sign of God’s judgment. Jesus’ sin, in the eyes of others, was healing the man on the Sabbath. The interesting thing is, this chapter’s conclusion is a complete reversal from its beginning. You see, the chapter began with the disciples assuming because someone was born blind either he or his parents must have been guilty of sin. Jesus, however, opposed that view, healed the man and then warded off the challenge from those who objected to him doing it on the sabbath. Now the chapter reaches its conclusion with the Pharisees, Jesus’ accusers, claiming to see everything clearly, claiming only they can decide what others should believe, when in fact they can’t. Jesus’ comment on their belief though is quite telling, for he lets them know that while blindness itself is no indication of sin, claiming to see, claiming to decide someone else’s truth, when you can’t is. As Barbara Brown Taylor says, “[A]ccording to John, these are the people to watch out for, because they think they can see. Furthermore, they think they can see better than other people, and they are not shy about telling you that you are not really seeing what you think you see, or that what you are seeing is wrong.” Why people choose to impose themselves on others in this way is somewhat of a mystery to me because it strips everyone involved of the truth found in the lived experience. We see this in the story of the man born blind and if we started today’s reading a little earlier in the chapter we would find that once he could see his own relatives weren’t even sure who he was. Others who had seen him only as a blind man begging decided he was a different man altogether. Even his own parents, when summoned to the synagogue, couldn’t bring themselves to fully believe in their son’s story. Not to mention the Pharisees who put him on trial and ultimately decided to throw him out of the synagogue. How can it be that none of them said, “Alleluia,” or “Thank God!” How in the world could this have happened to this man and none of them asked him what it was like to see for the first time, or whether the light hurt his eyes? Shouldn’t this have been a moment of joy and celebration for this man and his family and friends? Wouldn’t you like to hear about the party being thrown in his honor? I know I would. Instead, what we have here is a man put on trial by those in power, told his account of his own lived experience is false, and then thrown out… Discarded. The hardline Pharisees stuck to their principles at the expense of the evidence right in front of them. They clung so tightly to those principles that justice and awe and wonder didn’t even rise to the level of afterthought. Their system was one of division and exclusion. Their system could not allow an outsider to have a lived experience if they couldn’t understand the experience. Their system didn’t need to care for or respect the lived story of anyone they determined was a sinner. Theirs was a system of injustice. Not only were the Pharisees wrong, they had also constructed a system within which they could never see that they were wrong. It is one thing to be genuinely mistaken, and to be open to new evidence, new arguments, new insights. It is another to create a closed world, like a sealed room, into which no light, no breeze, can enter. For the latter, they not only do the wrong thing, they adjust their vision of the moral universe so that they can label evil as good and good as evil, as though they get to decide this for everyone. Sadly, and without even realizing, once that has happened, those people have effectively struck a deal that may deprive them of joy, of mystery, of expansion. They have turned away from the beautiful and diverse ways of God and locked themselves into a way of thinking and living which systematically excludes God. This is one way of reducing God into a human construct, and make no mistake, when this is done it is not God. The Pharisees believed they were right, and just like most of us changing beliefs is hard. The thing is, Jesus didn’t appear to have a problem with that and as Barbara Brown Taylor says “… according to the story of the man born blind, there is something worse than wrong belief, and that is wrong disbelief. What if something is God and I don’t believe that it is? That is the question the Pharisees forgot to ask.” You see, they were so blinded by their ability to make decisions, for themselves and for everyone else, they couldn’t see God at work. And Jesus called them on it. The man on the other hand could now see and as a result he threw caution to the wind. So what if they threw him out of the synagogue? So what if the authorities, real and self-appointed, declared him to be born in sin? He had to follow where the truth leads, even if those who were supposed to know the truth were suppressing it. He had to follow even though it resulted in his being thrown out. The Good News is there is more to the story. Remember, Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and went searching for him. He didn’t go searching for Jesus. In fact, he couldn’t have gone searching for Jesus because the only time he had been in his presence was when he was blind. He didn’t have any idea what Jesus looked like. I don’t know about you, but for me there is a certain beauty in knowing that Jesus went looking for him. When all others had rejected him. When all others decided his story was false, Jesus searched for him, and when he found him the man knew that he had finally found someone who would allow him to live his truth. I find great hope in knowing that Jesus goes looking. When harm is done to those less fortunate. Jesus goes looking. When people, claiming they can see better than others, decide to reject someone’s lived story because they can’t understand it. Jesus goes looking. When you summon the courage to speak your truth, like my clients did years ago and had their lives destroyed because of it. Jesus goes looking. Knowing this helps me understand how much relationships built on love and togetherness should matter to followers of Christ. And you want to know something, if we are serious about following Christ, then maybe we should go looking too. Whether we go or not is on us. The decision is all ours. So as we leave here today may we decide never to reject someone else just because their lived story is different than ours… May we decide to open ourselves up to new evidence, new arguments, new insights, instead of creating a closed world where light cannot enter… May we decide to follow where truth leads, even when those who are supposed to know the truth suppress it… And May we decide to truly follow Jesus as he continues to go looking. The decision is all ours. AMEN!
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John 4:5-42
As most of you know, in 2010 with the help of others, I started a feeding ministry called ARISE at Grace. I have numerous stories to tell about ARISE, and over time I might tell them all, but for today, I want to share what things were like on that very first day. After setting everything up, we had about 5 minutes before we were to open the doors and my dear friend and former Pastor Morris Brown asked everyone to gather together. So we circled up and held hands and Morris shared with us his vision for this new ministry, and I pray daily that I never forget. Morris said, my biggest hope is that whoever walks through those doors knows that we see them, knows that their life is valuable and knows that they matter. If those things can be accomplished through this ministry, then I believe transformation is possible. Morris offered a prayer and then we opened the doors and greeted 8 people we had not previously seen in our everyday lives. With the words of Morris’ vision on my mind I began to greet these new “friends” hoping that I was letting them know I “saw” them. Then a tall black man walked directly up to me and clinched his fist and stuck it out in my direction, and this is what happened: Me: [Being the son of Tommy Frank Knight I responded with an open hand to shake his hand.] Man: [Shaking head side to side sticks his clinched fist out to me again]. Me: [This time I responded appropriately and gave him a fist bump.] Man: “I’M DUKE.” Me: “WELL HELLO MR. DUKE.” Man: “I DIDN’T SAY MR. DUKE. I SAID DUKE!” Me: “YES SIR, I’M SORRY DUKE. IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU.” Duke: “WHY DID YOU MOVE YOUR OFFICE?” Me: “IM SORRY, WHAT WAS THAT?” Duke: “WHY DID YOU MOVE YOUR OFFICE? YOU’RE A LAWYER, AREN’T YOU?” Me: “THAT’S RIGHT.” Duke: “AND KEN, JR. IS YOUR PARTNER.” Me: “YES THAT’S RIGHT.” Duke: “AND YOU USED TO HAVE AN OFFICE AT THE CORNER OF WEST MARKET & COMMERCE.” Me: “YES THAT IS RIGHT, BUT I MOVED OUT OF THAT OFFICE ABOUT 3 OR 4 YEARS AGO.” Duke: “YEAH I KNOW. I USED TO SEE YOU COMING AND GOING EVERYDAY, BUT I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN AWHILE AND I WAS JUST WONDERING.” I was stunned, to say the least. How had I not seen this man? My law office was in that location for 5 years, but I never saw him. Where was he during this time that he could see me “coming and going” without me ever seeing him? I understood exactly what Morris was saying when he shared his vision about the value of letting people know they are seen. Heck at that time I was teaching a series centered around taking steps outside of our self-created bubbles, and here I was in real time, coming face to face with someone who had seen me enough to recognize me after 3-4 years’ time had passed and I had never seen him. I’ve shared this story many times and each time I share it, some ask if I was scared when Duke began telling me about myself and where my office was located, and each time I tell them no. Duke was a gift to me that day… In that single exchange, Duke let me know how badly I needed to slow down and see the world and the people around me. That encounter was the start to a friendship between Duke and me. A friendship unlike any other I was used to… a friendship that helped open my eyes. Have you ever wondered what life would be like if no one saw you? Now I’m not talking about in some weird “invisible” or “ghost” like way. No, I’m talking about a real lived life where every day you “feel” invisible to the world around you. A real lived life where your invisibility serves as a constant reminder of being rejected by those around you… Rejected by society. Well, if you are anything like me, being seen has not been difficult. In fact, the thought of not being seen really has never entered my mind, and this is the reason my heart breaks for all of those who feel that no one ever sees them. My heart breaks for those who believe they don’t matter and that their life has no value. My heart breaks for those who find themselves saying, if I wasn’t here no one would realize. My heart breaks for the Samaritan Woman walking to the well that day. A woman rejected by others, walking alone, a long distance from home in the hottest part of the day, doing a task women of her day did with others. Not to mention a task she could have done closer to home. And while we can’t know all that we want to know about her and her story, when placed in the appropriate historical context, we know a lot. You see, even though the text doesn’t tell us how each of her 5 marriages ended, when placed in its proper context we are certain none of her marriages ended because of her choice. This is why it is so important for us to recognize that it is our nature to read stories through our way of understanding how the world works, and while this can be appropriate sometimes, the stories of our Bible might change when read like this. If we read through 21st century eyes, some might reach negative conclusions about a woman, 5 times married and currently living with someone else. These negative thoughts seem to vanish though when we recognize that women of her day were seen only as property; not human beings. During this period of time women could not decide much of anything about their own life… Not to marry and definitely not to unmarry. If we think she made the decision to be married and un-married 5 times, then friends I have no doubt we miss Jesus’ point entirely. Jesus chose her to lead a spiritual revolution and this is why I believe we miss everything this story has to offer unless we understand what it meant to be a woman in that day. It was not easy to say the least. Just listen to the way Philip Yancey describes those days: “In those days, at every synagogue service Jewish men prayed, ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast not made me a woman.’ Women sat in a separate section, were not counted in quorums… In social life, few women would talk to men outside of their families, and a woman was to touch no man but her spouse.” And then we have Jesus come along and freely associate with women, even teaching some as his disciples. Jesus’ understanding of the power of womanhood was absolutely counter-cultural. His approach to women, his invitation for friendship went against everything people thought they knew about how to live with each other. Doesn’t this story of the woman at the well tell us as much? Just think about it, Jesus went out of his way to travel to places to share the good news. Traveling through Samaria was not the preferred route for Jews going from Galilee to Jerusalem. Traveling through Samaria was potentially dangerous as sometimes the Samaritans would attack pilgrims going from Galilee to Jerusalem, and so many would go a different way, down the Jordan valley to Jericho and then up the hill from there to Jerusalem. In fact, that is what Jesus and his followers did on their last journey together, but not this time. And while some might say Jesus knew he would encounter this woman at the well, I’m not so sure about that. What I do believe is that Jesus knew full well he would have an encounter with someone rejected by everyone else. I do believe Jesus knew by choosing to travel through Samaria he would encounter someone who might not initially want to talk with him. This is simply another example of Jesus’ openness. He always seemed open to new encounters. He always seemed open to friendship with those disregarded by society. Jesus always seemed to see them and value them. The thing is, those whom Jesus encountered had to be open to new possibilities too. And while last week it was Nicodemus, this week it is an un-named Samaritan women at the well. I imagine she could have been closed off to Jesus when seeing him at the well, but she wasn’t. Jesus was extending her an invitation to a type of relationship she had not previously known, and her openness to it changed her life. You see, this is a story about Kingdom Making and Boundary Breaking. During those first few months of ARISE, Duke and I began spending a little more time together. I would pick him up some days and we would go eat lunch at Libby Hill on Summit Avenue in Greensboro, and I really enjoyed our budding friendship. I learned a lot about Duke and he learned a lot about me. We both seemed very open to learning from each other. Then one Tuesday morning Duke walks in for breakfast at ARISE and walks straight up to me and points at me and very loudly says, “I OUGHT TO HATE YOU! IN FACT I OUGHT TO HATE ALL WHITE PEOPLE!” Now you can only imagine how the other volunteers reacted to what was happening, but suffice it to say they all scattered. So I stood there with Duke yelling at me and trying to calm him down because I really wanted to figure out what I had done. Duke then said: “AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I GOT REALLY MAD AT GOD LAST NIGHT! I WAS YELLING AT GOD AND I WAS REALLY MAD!” So I asked Duke why he was so mad at God, and his response to my question floored me. Duke said, “YOU KNOW SOMETHING I WAS REALLY MAD AT GOD BECAUSE I CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHY GOD CHOSE YOU TO BE MY FRIEND!” You have no idea how overwhelmed I was in that moment, because I understood exactly what Duke was saying. I knew Duke had every reason to be mad. He grew up in segregated Mississippi. He was friends with Emmett Till, the teenage African-American boy lynched in Mississippi after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. Duke was college educated but never given a chance by the white business owners in the south, so he became a cab driver. Duke had every reason to be mad. From vicious racism to oppressive societal rules that had done great damage to him and others like him. Those same rules that played a part in his sleeping on the sidewalk under the stairs at the church across from my old office. Duke had every reason to be mad. Yet on that morning as every other volunteer scattered at the booming sound of his voice, I stayed and I listened. I listened to my new friend tell me that I was his friend too. Despite all the reasons he had, all of the reasons society had given him to hate me. I listened to my friend tell me how hard it has been for him to be open to the ways God was working in his life, and I understood. When all was said and done, Duke put his arm around me and said, “NOW THAT’S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT,” and I knew he was right. The funny thing is, as I reflect on that day, I have come to realize that Duke and I had both gone out of our way to share good news with each other. And both of us were starting to open ourselves up to what God was doing with us, and lives were being transformed. Now, in just a moment, we will break bread together, and in doing so we are accepting Jesus’ invitation to come to the Table. This time though may we come to the table with a deeper understanding of what it means to go out of our way to travel into places to share the good news for this is exactly what Jesus did when he chose to travel through Samaria. This is where he encountered the woman at the well and it changed her life as well as the lives of those she told. Going out of our way like that is Kingdom Making and Boundary Breaking. This is what Jesus taught, both in his words and his actions. This is central to Gospel living. This is the way lives are transformed. Dear God, Let it Be! Amen. John 3:1-17
I have this friend, we will call him Mike. Well Mike lives a pretty good life by anyone’s standards. Big house, beautiful wife & kids. Member of the Country Club… You get the picture. Well Mike and I became friends a while ago and over time our conversations took on a faith dimension. Mike and his family are members of a big church in their town and faith has always been important to him. We would share our ideas, we would even share our questions, about God & Jesus. No matter what we would always get to the place where Mike would say, “You know something, I’m not sure how hard I try to listen to God and what God really wants for me… You want to know why? I really love my life just the way it is and I don’t know what I would do if I really listened to God and discovered that I need to change my life. I don’t know how I would handle that, so most of the time I’m not sure I even try to listen. I’ve always appreciated Mike’s honesty because I believe many of us feel the same way. The truth is Nicodemus was not that much different than we are. He was someone of deep faith, but he still longed for answers… a formula… a plan so that he might somehow be right with God. We all long to be right with God, don’t we? Now before we delve too deep into this encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus, I believe it is important that we know something of the way the Gospel writer John liked to write. For instance, John liked to use words with multiple meanings and we are offered a chance to see that in his use of the name Nicodemus. You see, the name Nicodemus is a combination of nike which means “victory” and demos which means “people.” So, while the literal translation of Nicodemus is “victor over the people” or “conqueror of the people,” some have suggested “victory of the people” or “victorious among his people,” is an equally good translation. This is important, I believe because it shows us today that not only is Nicodemus a member of the ruling class, his name is a symbol of domination. Now the text tells us he was a Pharisee and leader within the Jewish faith community. Being a Pharisee meant that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, Israel’s highest legislative and judicial body. From all accounts, there is no denying that he was a good man who really did try to live by THE LAW. We might even say that his was a life lived “by the book.” Yet in today’s text, it seems clear that living “by the book” has left Nicodemus hungry. Nicodemus has come to understand that something in his life was missing. Everything in his life to this point had been invested in keeping the law. Yet here he was seeking the advice of Jesus as though he was starting to realize there was something more to life itself. It seems the law had become an empty shell. Not that the Law was not important, because it was then and is now, but as important as the law was, Nicodemus realized that it was a human construct designed to control people. It was an artificial and outward way of living that had nothing to do with one’s heart. Now, the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, under the cover of darkness, tells us something… He most likely hoped no one would see him or hear him, because after all he was a Pharisee. Clearly something he had encountered was resonating with his own experience of life and he wanted to know more. There is a beauty in this happening and as Richard Rohr says, “… that’s the great moment in all divine revelation, when beautiful ideas drop in from head to heart, from the level of dogma to experience. When it’s not something we merely believe, but in a real sense something that we know.” He had seen and heard in Jesus a way of living unlike anything he had ever seen or heard before… and you know something, he was drawn to it. For him there was a mystery in this Jesus. Nicodemus said, “I know you are from God.” He even asked questions, and Jesus responded by telling him he needed to be born again. Jesus’ words about being “born from above”, that is, of the Spirit, or “born again” puzzled his soul. Over and again he asked Jesus “How can this be?” Now on this mystery of being born again, it is important to know that Jesus’ words are more sharply focused than we sometimes imagine. As N.T. Wright says, “[T]he Judaism that Nicodemus and Jesus both knew had a good deal to do with being born into the right family. What mattered was being a child of Abraham. Of course, other things mattered too, but this was basic. Now, Jesus is saying, God is starting a new family in which this ordinary birth isn’t enough. You need to be born all over again, born ‘from above’, meaning the initiative remains with God. Nicodemus’ problem was that there was no room for mystery in his understanding of faith. As is often the case, this problem may have been caused by him projecting his own cultural context (which always serves to limit the way we understand how the world works) onto God. Nicodemus wanted someone with all the answers… just like a lot of people of faith do today. When we want all the answers we leave no room for mystery, and in my opinion no room for God. PNEUMA Now, in an effort to explain the mysterious nature of the Spirit, Jesus, in verse 8, said the “wind blows where it chooses.” Jesus told Nicodemus, you hear the Wind (you hear the Spirit), but that does not mean you know where it comes from or where it goes. That part remains a mystery like it has been since the very beginning. This is so important to grasp because Jesus is not only teaching Nicodemus, I believe he is teaching us that the Wind, the Spirit, has always and forever blown where it chooses. That part is a mystery, just as it should be, and we are not charged with understanding it. We can simply let go and live into it. It seems Nicodemus struggled to break free from all the rules he had been taught. All the rules which had defined his very existence to that point. It certainly appears he could not receive the Spirit God intended because he was bound up in legalism, and it was choking him. The good news is that later in the story Nicodemus actually came to Jesus’ defense and then helped with his burial. For me, this is evidence that Nicodemus finally let go and surrendered to Jesus’ teachings about being born again. In this way, Nicodemus stopped resisting the Spirit and allowed the Spirit to Blow in and through him. This was a courageous act for Nicodemus, after all he was a respected and senior teacher of the Jews. Even though we can’t be sure Nicodemus knew why he was coming to Jesus for advice, I believe it is safe for us to say Nicodemus came because he was hungry for something more in his own life. Instead of falling back on a hard and fast set of rules this was the starting point for Nicodemus’ journey toward more. The thing is, relying on hard and fast rules, being bound up in legalism, always keeps people from being who and what God created and called them to be. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there are a lot of churches that actually promote the thinking that plagued and burdened Nicodemus. Fundamentalism…in its many manifestations…is concerned with believing the right things. It keeps us stuck in the head and prevents us from dropping into the heart. Throughout history the idea has been that “right belief” will lead to right behavior, and it is exactly this belief that Jesus was addressing. Without a changed heart, any and all change is artificial. Without a changed heart, we do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. Without a changed heart the artificial hides the real. The bottom line for Nicodemus is that Jesus called for him to be radically changed… to be born anew which initially confused Nicodemus, but at least he asked some follow up questions. The thing is, we must not see his confusion, and his need for clarification as anything other than OK. Confusion is not some sign of weakness or inferiority as long as it doesn’t prevent you from seeking. On the other hand, when confusion stops you from seeking, when confusion causes you to fall back on the rules you already know, then divine revelation is practically impossible. The fact remains that Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he was going to have to approach life itself from a whole new place and perspective. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he could no longer approach life from the place where he was or where he has always been, and this was hard to hear. If we are honest, we do not easily hear someone, or something, telling us we can no longer approach life as we have before. Most of us really do not like living into a “new normal” and some of us hate it with a passion. Each one of us knows the struggle of this journey. It is why we seek answers… from preachers who say they have them… from authors who say they have written them… from churches that have it all figured out. It is why we seek after more… trying to fill the empty spaces of our lives. I have a pretty good sense of why this text is part of the Lectionary during this time. There is no better time than Lent for us to be talking about our need to re-examine our lives, especially our spiritual lives. Lent is about PAUSING & asking WHERE AM I DOING GOOD & MOST IMPORTANTLY WHERE DO I NEED TO START TO DO BETTER. I believe these are such important questions. They are important for me, for my friend Mike and for you. So as we leave here today, May we Pause; May we stop resisting the Spirit because the Spirit Blows Where it chooses, not where we choose; May we ask where we are doing good; May we ask where we can start doing better; and Then may we take seriously what we hear for we may just find ourselves being born again. In Jesus’ name…Amen. Years ago we began a little tradition in our family for Birthday Celebrations. This tradition is rather simple, but for me its beauty is found in its simplicity. The one celebrating the birthday chooses the menu for a home cooked meal for just the 5 of us, and the birthday boy or girl gets to eat from a “SPECIAL PLATE.” While Joshua, Jacob and Emma Grace have their own personalized “Special Plate” (courtesy of their YaYa & Papa Smith), Amy & I have a Red “YOU ARE SPECIAL TODAY” plate. Maybe some of you have similar plates and traditions.
Now, I may not remember every detail of every birthday celebration, but I do remember October of 2008. After dinner, we sat together while I opened my family's gifts to me. The last gift I opened that night was from Amy and came in the form of a card. As I read the card I began to cry which without any warning turned to weeping. Not knowing what to make of my reaction, Amy asked if she had done something wrong, and through a cracked voice I told her “oh no, this is the most loving, thoughtful greatest gift I have ever received.” Now, before I tell you what the gift was, it is important that we all realize the subjectivity of our lives. You see, I have since discovered (truth be told, I probably knew before) that what I describe as the most loving, thoughtful, greatest gift I have ever received, most people I know describe with opposite adjectives. Even my own Amy would never want this gift. So, what was the gift? Well for a few years at this point Amy had heard me talk about doing a “SILENT RETREAT”, and while it seemed to me that she dismissed this idea, she had apparently been taking mental notes. Then she had taken the time to research silent retreats in North Carolina and remarkably landed on a website for “A Quiet Place” which turns out to be a “retreat” (I use that word lightly) situated in the Mountains of North Carolina just beyond Spruce Pine, NC. A Quiet Place consists of an old farm house and two 1 room cabins. A stream leading to a 50’ waterfall runs through the property. Neither cabin has running water, but none of that seems to matter when you are there. The property is owned by Cecilia and Michael who met me as I arrived. Michael led me to my cabin and on our way, he asked “are you going to enter into the SACRED SILENCE?” When I responded that I was, he quickly asked if I had brought anything to read. I said as a matter of fact in addition to my stay at A Quiet Place, Amy gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card that I had used earlier that morning to purchase a couple of books to read during my stay. Upon hearing this, he suggested that I not read if I really wanted to enter into the SACRED SILENCE. This caught me off-guard a little, but believing him to be the expert, I did as he suggested and replaced reading with journaling without really understanding why he suggested this, but boy did I soon find out. For the next 2 days, I hiked, wrote in my journal, hiked, wrote in my journal, and hiked and wrote in my journal some more. As I wrote I found myself often crying, which maybe does not come as a shock to some of you. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my tears came from both anger and fear, all of which I directed toward God. Then as I sat on a hilltop around 4:00 PM that second day, God showed up and proceeded to talk to me for the next hour. It was such an incredible experience that I remember it like it happened just a few minutes ago. During that entire time, I never uttered a word, and to anyone who might have been witnessing my time with God, they would tell you they didn’t see or hear God. As though they would know, I have no doubt about this experience. God, in the form of a Ground Hog, spent close to an hour letting me know that I didn’t have to be scared. I didn’t have to fear life or where my life was headed. You see, God demonstrated what my life had looked like for so long. 1 step forward then immediate retreat to shelter. Then 2 steps forward and retreat, 3 steps forward, retreat… and on and on and on. With each step God took forward, I heard assurances that God is with me each and every step I take in my own journey. God said, “You are not alone. You are my beloved child and I will never leave you. You are valuable beyond measure and I love you my son.” Now some of you might think it funny that God came to me as a Groundhog, and I get that. Some of you may be thinking what have we done calling this guy as our Senior Pastor, (Hopefully that’s not the case). The funny thing is I am OK with these reactions to this part of my story, as the truthfulness of my lived experience seems to overcome others disbelief. Something else can easily happen with other peoples’ stories: they can captivate our imagination to the point that we want to know more and more about what really happened… and then our desire to better understand could even cause of us to make additions to the story. Take today’s scripture and the story of the Magi. Their story has so captured our imagination that over time poets have written about it, artists have painted about it and musicians have sung about it. When you consider how little we actually know about their story, this is quite remarkable. As my father-in-law, Dr. Mike Queen has said, “[O]f all the stories around the life of Jesus, it is this one about a visitation by so-called ‘wise men’ that is often the most misunderstood.” The thing is, when you combine imaginative captivation with a lack of knowledge, the end result always seems to be a story that sounds wonderful. A story without wholes or gaps. A complete story as some might say. This is exactly what has happened to the Magi’s story for even though we might sing “We Three Kings,” the reality is they were not kings and according to Matthew there were not 3. Add that we really don’t know who they were; where their journey to Bethlehem began; how long the journey took, how old Jesus was when they arrived, or much of anything about this famous star, and we might find ourselves questioning everything. Luckily even when we reach this point, throwing it all out as false is not the only option. There is another way for those who PAY ATTENTION when interacting with biblical stories. I love what Barbara Brown Taylor has to say when we find ourselves in this place with the stories of our Bible. She says, “[I]t is not that the facts don’t matter. It is just that they don’t matter as much as the stories do, and stories can be true whether they happen or not. You do not have to do archaeology to find out if they are genuine, or spend years in the library combing ancient texts. There is another way… You just listen to the story. You let it come to life inside of you, and then you decide on the basis of your own tears or laughter whether the story is true… it is always a good idea to watch other people who have listened to the story – just PAY ATTENTION to how the story affects them over time. Does it make them more or less human? Does it open them up or shut them down? Does it increase their capacity for joy?” All of these questions point in the direction of the heart, you see, while pointing away from the head. These questions point to feeling and away from thinking, which for some seems harder and harder to do. The thing is, reason and analysis don’t help us much with this story because this IS a story of the heart. This is a story of those who listened to the promptings of God and responded. This is a story of those who PAID ATTENTION to the things happening around them and most importantly opened themselves up so they could PAY ATTENTION to God’s call to journey, and to God’s leading during the journey itself. It seems none of their story had anything to do with whether or not others believed in its truth because theirs was a journey toward hope. When I am able to let their story work on me in this way I find that I no longer need to know each detail because it is enough for me to know that something called deep into their souls and caused them to launch this journey in the first place. I know what that feels like, and while my experience involved God speaking to me through a Groundhog while I sat on the top of a hill listening, theirs was different. Amazingly, both ended with us accepting God’s invitation to journey. And just like the Magi needed to PAY ATTENTION, I did too. The thing is PAYING ATTENTION can oftentimes feel so hard, but I believe it is a must. The fast pace of our lives can make PAYING ATTENTION to anything difficult, and cause us to say that God is silent. We should never allow our inability to PAY ATTENTION to cause us to believe God is silent. Even in my life, I had to journey away from home and voluntarily enter into the SACRED SILENCE before I could PAY ATTENTION to God. But you know something, by doing this I can stand before any and every crowd and say that I know God still speaks to people today. Not all of us can journey away like I did, but I do believe all of us can PAY BETTER ATTENTION. The handful of days I spent in the SACRED SILENCE remain the most loving, thoughtful greatest gift I have ever received. It was there that God and I spent about an hour together and I PAID ATTENTION. It was there that God assured me I didn’t have to be scared; I didn’t have to fear life or where my life was headed. It was on that hilltop where God said so clearly, Jason I am with you each and every step you take on your journey. Jason I want you to always remember that you are my beloved child and I will never leave you. You are valuable beyond measure and I love you my son. My prayer today is that we all PAY ATTENTION to the promptings of God in our lives. May we always know we are not alone. May we come to realize fear does not have to dictate our actions and our lives. May all of us remember that we are God’s beloved children and God will never leave us. And may we live our lives feeling and believing it is true when God says, you are valuable beyond measure and I love you my child. In Jesus’ name…Amen. In 1987 the State of California held its very first High School State Championship for boys cross country running. While holding a State Championship in a sporting event is not remarkable in and of itself, the fact that a group of novice runners from the tiny farm town of McFarland came out on top is. And I am not the only one to think this, as this remarkable story served as the inspiration for the major motion picture known as “McFarland USA” that came out in February of 2015.
The story (of “McFarland, USA”) began when Coach Jim White took an unlikely group of McFarland High School students and turned them into a champion cross-country running team, and ultimately building a cross-country dynasty. Year after year, Coach White’s kids won titles, 9 in 15 years to be exact, but the titles are only part of the story, and to the real-life people depicted in the movie the titles paled in comparison to the life-long relationships created by Coach White believing in them and them believing in Coach White. McFarland, for those who are unfamiliar with the town, is an agricultural community located in the central valley of California. Like the town, McFarland High School is predominantly Latino, children of “pickers” or farm-workers paid low wages for doing grueling back-breaking work in the fields. Even some of the students work in the fields before and after school each. It has been said that McFarland “is a farming town where its kids are invisible. They come from the fields and they go back to the fields.” All of that seemed to change when Coach White saw something others hadn’t even though it was right in front of them to whole time… These boys could run and they were fast. And you know something, 30 years later all of those involved in the beginning and even those who have benefited since say thank you. If we are honest with ourselves, each one of us owes a debt of gratitude to many other people. I certainly do. But it seems we have decided that uttering the words “thank you” to another soul is to admit that we are or were dependent upon them. And with the value we place on independence in our society, dependence is often seen as a form of weakness. The reality is none of us would be who we are or where we are without the help and support of others. Whether its parents, grandparents, teachers or coaches, none of us does it alone. For those who see themselves as self-sufficient, it is all an illusion. Our text for today finds Jesus on his way to Jerusalem from Galilee. As he came to the border of Samaria, he saw a group of lepers off at a distance. The Law, set out in Leviticus, required those labeled as lepers to keep a safe distance from others for fear that the disease would spread. Their knowledge of the Law is believed to be the reason the 10 kept their distance when they called out for Jesus to have mercy on them. He responded to their request by saying “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Now you may be saying, what kind of response was that and if that is the case then it seems important to know that according to the Law, only the priests could declare a person clean or unclean. This meant the priests had incredible social power for they decided if someone was to be removed from society, from their family, from their life and they decided if someone was to be re-united with their family, with society. So it seems safe for us to say that Jesus’ response would make complete sense to those 10 lepers. So they went, but then, as they were on their journey to the priests, something happened: they were made clean. How they knew this, we are not exactly sure, but as I was just recently reminded, there are many things we simply don’t know when it comes to the details of this story. For instance, some of us may think that as these 10 turned to take their 1st step in going to show themselves to the priests, they saw that they were made clean. The funny thing about that though is the text only says “as they went” without any referenced to time. The text also tells us only 1 of them actually saw that he was healed, but it doesn’t tell us at what point on his journey he saw. And knowing that they traveled on foot, and they were a good distance from Jerusalem makes me wonder how much of the journey to the priests was complete. Now this doesn’t mean that the stories aren’t true. What it does mean is that we can very easily insert our ideas into the story when our ideas are not part of the text. But we do know that the one who saw returned to Jesus, bowed down and praised God. Now maybe we find ourselves wondering about the other 9 because it appears Jesus wondered about them. Remember, he did ask, “Did I not heal 10 men? Where are the other 9? Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?” The thing is, even though we might sense a bit of exasperation in Jesus’ questions, I’m not so sure this gospel story requires the other 9 to be bad or corrupt people. Could it be that they were more obedient to Jesus’ instructions? Didn’t they keep going to the priest as Jesus told them and as the law asked of them. Surely there is nothing wrong with doing what Jesus asks of you. Could it be that only 1 of them has Eyes to See? But, then I wonder if Jesus was making a different point altogether. Maybe Jesus was teaching that healing requires more than physical recovery and pronouncement by people with authority. Maybe true healing requires gratitude. The kind of gratitude shown in saying thank you and acknowledging the gifts you have received, especially gifts from God. Maybe this is why Jesus said to this foreigner, “your faith has made you well.” And as much as I want to talk about Jesus praising someone while calling him a foreigner, that is a sermon for a different day. In terms of Faith, though, I love the way Father Richard Rohr talks about this kind of faith. “He compares it to falling in love. We fall into faith. We don’t achieve it or earn it or gain it through something we do, we simply fall into it. We let go. We let gratitude fill us and we find that our lives become expressions of praise. Without that kind of falling, if we’re still grasping on to our own attempts to be healed or made whole, we are missing out on that life-giving offer of God’s to make us well.” In this way, falling into faith opens our eyes to God’s reality. Only one came back to express gratitude. Only one and Jesus told him that his faith had made him well. If you are like me, though, you may still find yourself wondering about the other 9. The text tells us that they were made clean too, but you know something, it is so unfair for me to pass judgment on the other 9, especially when I feel like I know them so well. Even in my own life there are a lot of people who have needed to hear my “thank yous” across the years, and I hope I have done a good job of telling them. Truth be told though, I know there are some I could have done a better job with. You see it is entirely possible to “feel” gratitude in your heart, and leave it at that. Sometimes, though, we need to “say” it so that those for whom we are thankful actually know it. Failing to express gratitude may be seen as bad manners; but it feeds into the illusion of self-sufficiency. If we never have to give thanks, we never have to acknowledge our dependence upon others. Now I dare say that any one of us would declare that we are dependent upon no one; but are there people in your life who need to hear…but have never heard…your gratitude…your sincere “thank you?” The words themselves… “thank you”… may sound trite or simple, but they are profound. The very act of worship is nothing less than a grand “thank you” to God. That is what our hymns do. That is what our prayers say. That is what our very presence in this place shouts! We are not self-sufficient. We need God and we need each other. And although the movie doesn’t show how much Coach White and his boys believed in and depended on God, it you dig a little bit you will find that it played a significant role. For those with eyes to see, their story illustrates just how much we need both. If we are honest, each one of us owes a debt of gratitude to many other people, but to utter the words “thank you” to another is to admit that we are or were dependent upon them… And you know something we are. None of us would be who we are or where we are without the help and support of others, whether its parents, grandparents, teachers or coaches, or God. Sometimes we need to thank God. Sometimes we need to thank others. Sometimes we need to thank both. But we must never take either for granted or succumb to the illusion that we do it alone. And as we go, may we be blessed with eyes to see and then may we say thank you. In Jesus’ name…Amen. Each week as I begin studying the scripture for my sermon, I immediately wonder what Dr. Tupper might say about it. Then I turn to my lecture notes from Dr. Tupper’s Systematic Theology, the one file folder from my seminary classes that I’ve kept out of storage, to gain deeper insight, a different perspective on the scripture. Systematic Theology was Dr. Tupper’s class for more than 40 years. First at Southern Seminary and then at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. I didn’t know it, until the end of my 1st year, but I was one of the students in the last Systematic Theology Course he taught, and while I take great pride in that, I am also a bit sad for those seminarians coming after me who did not have the chance to witness his beauty.
Special does not begin to describe who Dr. E. Frank Tupper is to me. Without a shadow of a doubt, I know I am a better person for having the privilege to call Dr. Tupper my professor and my friend. I think back to my 1st month in seminary sitting in his class at 9:30 AM and marveling at the depth of his knowledge, but there was something else I noticed in him that I had only experienced in 2 other professors I had encountered. Now remember, by this time I had experienced quite a few professors: 4 years of undergrad, 3 years of law school and now seminary. Not to mentioned, I had 8 years of experience as an Adjunct Professor prior to entering seminary. Dr. Tupper was special and I knew it from the very first class. He scared some and in fact, a minister friend of mine who studied at Southern Seminary couldn’t believe I had chosen to take Dr. Tupper’s class because he made it a point to schedule his classes so he could avoid the high expectations and rigorous requirements. I don’t know if Dr. Tupper had lightened up over the years, but what others might have called rigorous or demanding I saw a bit differently, I saw it as an expression of love, and I made it a point to let Dr. Tupper know that. The first time we met 1 on 1 happened because I accepted his invitation for a “Get Acquainted Interview.” To some, this offer would not appear attractive, but I leapt at the opportunity to meet 1 on 1. So one afternoon we sat together in his office allowing our 10-15 minute interview to last more than an hour. Our time together was meaningful in the very same way friends recall meeting each other for the 1st time. He genuinely wanted to know all about me. Tell me about your family, he started. How old are your children, what are they passionate about?... How about your wife, how is she handling this?... I’m sure this must be tough… Make sure you do everything you can to let them know you love them. You need them more than you can even realize and they need you too. And then I began asking similar questions of him, which initially caught him off-guard. This is my opportunity to get to know more about you, he said, but then as quickly as he said that he realized I genuinely wanted to discover these same things about him. I do believe we both knew that our 1 on 1 time was not Professor Student or Teacher Pupil time, rather it was 2 members of God’s creation, previously unknown to each other, embracing the small amount of time to get to know more about the other and more about God. We opened up to each other and shared as much as we could in the time we had. Then toward the end, I asked him if I could share some things I had observed about him in the handful of lectures I had witnessed. I wanted him to know how special I found his passion for passing along his knowledge. I wanted to share some of the characteristics that seemed to permeate through him and bless us students. He was reluctant, probably because we had only been around each other for less than 10 hours at this point, but he finally said I could. I proceeded to tell him that I pictured him late at night in his home (he lived alone) pacing back and forth for hours trying to figure out if earlier in the day he had lectured in a way that gave us students the best possible chance of learning. Not for test taking or paper writing purposes, but genuinely learning. I said that I bet he sees each student’s face while pacing and wonders if he could have shared his knowledge in some better way. I told him that each time he stood before us in the classroom I could feel how deeply he cared. I ended by telling him I was honored to be his student, and that I knew, even after just a few weeks, that his impact on my life would last until my last days and I hoped my ministry would serve to honor the parts of himself that he so freely gave to me. When I finished, Dr. Tupper had tears streaming down his face and with a broken voice he asked how I knew all of that about him. I told him I wasn’t exactly sure, and we both seemed to be ok with that. As I stood to leave, he thanked me and I thanked him and we hugged. Then he said, you know they tell me I should not meet with students like this anymore. Would you believe they even created some type of rules to discourage it. They think that we should just lecture, research, write and publish. That way my time with students would be limited to classroom lectures. You know something though, spending this time with you today has been more rewarding than any lecture I have given these past few weeks and I cannot thank you enough. And as I turned to exit his office I said, even more proof of how deeply you care about relationships and value a person’s humanity. I share this with you for a couple of reasons. First, Dr. Tupper fell earlier this week, broke his neck and is currently in a Louisville, Kentucky hospital being fed through a tube. Needless to say, he has been on my mind. But there is another reason, Dr. Tupper never allowed the rules created to separate people determine his actions toward others. He was in a position of power, renowned in his field of study, encouraged not to waste time with those students of the lower class, and yet everyday he lived as though he had been called by God, through Jesus the Christ, to befriend them. He lived every day seeking authentic relationships with the very people he had been told not to waste his valuable time on. Dr. Tupper knew life was lived by resisting the rules meant to separate people, no matter if those rules were handed down by those with authority, or simply a product of the culture. He taught me that Gospel living happened by choosing to travel paths that lead to connections with others, not neglecting others. Gospel living never neglects others, and yet this is exactly what the scribes and Pharisees were doing. They justified their neglect of others because they chose to interpret the law in a way that erected barriers between them and the others. And Jesus called them on it because their interpretation of the law perpetuated the neglect of people they deemed less than them. Now tithing to God they could do, but even in their tithing they weren’t really offering much of themselves because mint, dill and cumin were the smallest of herbs. To understand Jesus’ message as anything less than offering yourself to others in need, anything less than making room for anyone and everyone choosing to come to the table, is to miss the point altogether. Clearly the scribes and Pharisees understood tithing and while there was nothing wrong with that, tithing the smallest of their spices didn’t require interaction with, or relationship with other people, and Jesus was teaching them as much. Pursuing Justice, Mercy and Faith always require this, but they are oftentimes impossible to measure. Seeking justice for all persons. Granting mercy to those who have hurt us. Living in faith so others might see. All of that is tough…and virtually impossible to measure. Partly because none of them is ever fully achieved. I can give a tithe and know it and feel good about it. I can come to worship and mark that off the to do list and feel good about it. I can even read the Bible and feel good about it, but on that very issue Francis Chan warns “… if we are not careful, a dangerous habit could form: we could learn to read the bible and do nothing in response… study to the neglect of action becomes easier and easier with each occurrence… and we should be terrified if we have mastered the art of becoming convicted and doing nothing in response.” I don’t know about you, but I believe this is why Jesus was so frustrated, even angry at the scribes and Pharisees. Can’t you hear it, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites…” You have mastered reading the law, yet you fail to seek Justice, Mercy and Faith and because of that you neglect others in need. You read, yet you are not changed. Tithing one’s possessions is a good thing, and it is actually achievable. Pursuing justice may be something we do till the day we die and we may never see it. It always involves other people and it is messy and costly and hard. We may never arrive at our goal…because injustice and condemnation and pride will fight all our attempts. I wonder if the fact that it is hard work is the reason we fall back to doing what we can control. We fall back on that which we can accomplish and measure and get credit for! Getting credit oftentimes seems to be the goal, doesn’t it? If you are like me, though, you may ask yourself from time to time whose credit you seek, or why credit is a goal in the first place. Many of us have gone on mission trips to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. Those trips have been “mountain top” experiences as Amy likes to say. We all come back from those places “changed” in some way, but the reason we are changed is never the work we do or the route we take or the food we eat or the places we stay. The change is always because and always will be because of the people we meet. We are amazed at how they live and still have smiles on their faces. We are blown away by their faith in and dependence upon God. They teach us what faith and dependence actually look like and while we are there we seem to get it. Dr. Chuck Poole calls this a “theology of extremity.” He tells the story of a day when he became “undone” over some change taking place in his church of which he did not approve. He fretted and worried and wrung his hands over the matter. Later that day, he encountered a family who had no money to buy food for their children for the rest of the month. He compared his anguish over a change in the liturgy of his church with the anguish of parents unable to feed their children. He did not like what he saw. He concluded that as much as God cared about the worship liturgy of his church, God cared more about God’s children living in “extreme” poverty, hunger, deprivation, injustice…or whatever. This led to his “theology of extremity.” While I cannot be certain this was the cause, it was not long before Dr. Poole resigned from the prestigious church he served to launch a ministry dedicated to the homeless and hungry and marginalized souls of Jackson, Mississippi. What I think happened to Dr. Poole, and also to those of us who journey on mission trips, is that our priorities get rearranged. Things we once thought “important” lose importance fairly quickly. I saw it this past summer with Joshua when he returned from his summer mission trip to Philadelphia. My son, 15 at the time, was so moved by the children he was serving. These children have never experienced the material wealth he has, or a place of privilege like Joshua, yet these children taught him a most valuable lesson. They showed him the rewards of a life that seeks friendship. I recall him telling me & his Mom that we couldn’t possibly understand because these children “had nothing” but their happiness was infectious. Luckily Amy & I knew exactly what Joshua was talking about because when we were teenagers we experienced the same thing. Hopefully some of you have too. Hopefully you know what it is like to head off to serve those less fortunate only to return home knowing full well that it was you who had been served by them. So perhaps what we need is a new way to measure our lives…a way that refuses to make mountains out of molehills… a way that has nothing to do with most of the stuff over which we lose sleep. Perhaps we need to learn from people like Dr. Tupper who teach us about taking time to get to know the people who cross our paths, no matter what the rule makers or rules themselves say we should do. And as harsh as it may sound, maybe we need to hear Jesus calling us hypocrites. Could it be that all this time we have read the Bible and done nothing in response? If this is the case in your life, it may actually be time for you to start asking what your life might look like if you opened yourself up so the Bible actually worked on you. These stories we read, these stories that some of us know by heart, what if we took seriously what these stories said? What if we read them in such a way that we began responding to their call. Maybe we would begin to experience the very transformation we all claim to want. Maybe, just maybe we would stop neglecting others and actually pursue Justice, Mercy and Faith. No matter what anyone says, this is the transformed life Jesus modeled. This is the transformed life to which God is calling all of us. It is my prayer that we begin reading the Bible and actually responding in ways that seek Justice, Mercy and Faith. May we stop making mountains out of molehills and may we be convicted to always offer something of ourselves to others in need. Dear God, please let it be. AMEN! Exodus 3:1-12
Recently I read an article claiming that today’s culture could be referred to as expert quitters. This claim had me thinking quite a bit about my own life. Like discovering that my Dad came by every job I had as a teenager (without me knowing) and talking to my boss to make sure I was working hard and not goofing off. Or the time when I was 14 and my Dad got me a summer job at a factory in Burlington and when I got home after my 1st day I told him I was not going back to which he replied, “Boy yes you are.” It’s probably not hard for you to figure out who was right. I know these lessons are at least part of the reason I really don’t like to see people quit, or give up. I’m not sure any of us thinks of ourselves as quitters. Yet when I think of the numerous instances where something becomes hard, or someone’s feelings get hurt causing them to “get their ball and go home,” I can’t help but wonder if this author is right. People try a job, but they find the work difficult and demanding, so they walk away. Some start diets and discover they are expected to exercise their body and their common sense, so they quit. Others begin a fitness program and maintain the schedule for a few weeks; when they realize that fitness is a lifetime goal, they quit. There are even stories of people attending church, and when something the preacher says displeases them, they quit. When they discover that the Christian Faith requires effort, they quit. It could be said that instead of working to make things better, quitting becomes the preferred choice. Is there a chance that this author is correct in his assessment of today’s culture? If he is, I would like to know why quitting has become such a preferable option. Especially when you consider that we are most easily drawn to stories of those who persevere. Those who choose not to give up, not to quit, especially when all the cards are stacked against them. We pull for those people, over and against the quitter. This, I believe, is the reason speeches like Coach Jim Valvano’s 1993 ESPY speech “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up” resonate so deeply and stay with us the rest of our lives. While him saying “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up, was a powerful moment, there are other inspirational moments in that speech. One happened early on when Coach Valvano said, “I always have to think about what’s important in life… Things like, Where you started, where you are and where you’re going to be.” Maybe Coach Valvano knew the Exodus story by heart because it seems those three things, where you started, where you are and where you are going mirror Moses’ story. Where You Started So where did Moses start? Well in the early years of his life Moses had it pretty good…raised in Egypt in the house of Pharoah…given responsibility and a place of privilege. That place of privilege unraveled for him when he killed a man for beating a Hebrew slave. As a fugitive, Moses became a man on the run. He ended up way east of Egypt in a land called Midian. Ironically things worked out pretty good for him there, too. He married the daughter of Jethro and then went to work for his father-in-law tending his herd of sheep. It was a rather ordinary life, but it was a safe life. Where You Are Then we have the second of Coach Valvano’s three things: WHERE YOU ARE, which seems to fit today’s scripture rather nicely. In this scripture we find one of the great moments in the Biblical narrative and it happened on an otherwise normal day when Moses was tending sheep for Jethro. Somewhere on the side of Mt. Horeb, Moses saw a bush that was aflame but not consumed. It was on fire, but it didn’t burn up. As he moved closer to inspect this phenomenon, the voice of God spoke to him and told him to take off his shoes since he was standing on holy ground. God reminded him of the people of Israel who had been left behind in Egypt as slaves, and then told Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver them out of bondage. Moses didn’t much care for God’s idea. After all, he was a wanted man…a fugitive…and going back to Egypt had no appeal. On top of that, Moses reminded God of all the reasons why he should not lead- his poor speech…his lack of authority…and on and on. God acknowledged all of that, explained what he [God] would do and then simply said, ‘I will be with you.’ This promise of God should never be viewed as simple though, because this has been the promise of God from the start, and no matter how many times God’s people fall down or complain or screw up, God remains with them. You see, this Exodus story is really a story of God’s faithfulness. A faithfulness that did not begin nor end with Moses on Mt. Horeb. God’s faithfulness, despite what God’s people do in response, is recorded for us in the great stories of the faith, like this story of the Call of Moses. All of Scripture bears witness to this faithfulness. Where You Want To Be This conversation between Moses and God brings us to Coach Valvano’s third step: WHERE YOU WANT TO BE. Of the three steps, this is the hardest. It requires effort, it looks to the future without any sort of timetable for achievement. Take Moses and the Hebrew people for instance, answering God’s call was also the start of a 40 year journey of twists and turns and even dead ends. You remember the story of the plagues on the Egyptians…the Red Sea crossing… the Golden Calf…the wandering years in the desert…the daily manna…and finally the move into the Promised Land. It all began when Moses heard his name…and sensed that God was calling him to something very different than what he had planned for himself. As Eugene Peterson says, answering this call requires “a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts.” Deciding that you want to be where God is leading always precedes your arrival at that destination, and make no mistake, the path between answering the call and arriving is never fully known until the destination has actually been reached. This new unknown place can be terrifying, exhilarating, even paralyzing. It is even possible to feel all three of these at the same time, or countless other emotions. The thing is, I believe each and every day you have a choice; you can either choose life or you can choose death. Where Moses wanted to choose death for himself, [speech problems, no authority, etc.], God chose life for him [I will protect you, I will be with you always]. Now we should not for one minute think this was an easy choice for Moses. The text tells us as much. Moses’ questioning of God, questioning of himself should not go unnoticed. This was an extremely hard choice for Moses. We see this in the five objections he raises in response to God’s call: 1. “Who am I?” 2. “Who are you?” 3. “What if they do not believe me?” 4. “I stutter.” 5. “Why not send someone else?” Yet throughout this encounter God continues answering Moses respectfully and lovingly, offering a promise of personal Presence and an ever-sustaining glimpse into who God is – nameless, formless, liberator, sustainer. It was this promise to be with him that made all the rest possible. Moses believed and trusted that God would indeed do what God promised…to lead him daily… and to be with him no matter what. Moses knew he was being called to journey and he trusted God to remain with him every step. Is this not what we are all called to do? Moses had no aspirations beyond Midian…no dreams of anything different than where he was and what he was doing. He was satisfied with the status quo. We all get that way from time to time…don’t we? For some reason, God always and forever seems to be calling his people, including us, to change whenever change is needed. God seems to always be calling his people, including us, to new places and new ways of choosing life. In his article, Expeditions into What is Possible, Lawrence Peers asked those who lead churches: “How often do we prefer the familiar and the safe? How much do we prefer to remain with what is, with no inclination to move toward what is possible? How often as leaders of faith communities do we stay on the edge of our own Red Sea waiting for some miracle to occur before we even budge? We need practical directions as we embark on our own expeditions into what is possible, not just for the congregations we lead but also for ourselves as leaders. In fact, for us to effect deep change—that is, change that is not just…on the surface but change that is…transformative —we need to re-author our leadership. In so doing, we are not merely agents of change but, like Moses, we are changed.” (Congregations, Summer 2010, p.29) Leading change is not just doing something different. Anyone can do something different. Everyone gets enamored by novelty. Moses did not just lead his people out of Egypt. He led them to a new understanding of who they were and of what was possible. I think this is the work of pastors… helping people to see what is possible…with God’s help. And make no mistake, leading is hard work…and it is intensely personal. Some may even choose not to lead, but for dreamers like myself, running away from helping people see what is possible was never a real option. The thing is, I tried to deny it. Tried to run away from it, but similar to God being patient with Moses’ questions, God was ever so patient with me and the path I took to get here. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God calls us to journey toward a fulfilled life, and our pursuit of this could be called a long obedience in the same direction. As I close today, it seems only fitting to do in the words of Coach Jim Valvano: “How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it. I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get your emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day… to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. You have the ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.” You see, its speeches like those... It’s stories of people who answer God’s call to journey… It’s stories of people who make the decision to choose life, not death that resonate till the end of time. Quitting is not the answer, nor should it be a defining characteristic of our culture. God is with us, calling us to journey, calling us to choose life. Amen! Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3
One of the most powerful and moving miracle stories involving Jesus is found in John’s Gospel. And while we stopped today’s scripture reading at verse 3, the story itself continues with Jesus spitting on the ground to make mud, placing that mud over the blind man’s eyes and once it was washed away, he could see. Finding this story in the middle of this Book seems a bit strange to me, when considering we are taught to lead off with a powerful story because that will grab the audiences attention. In fact, I spend a lot of time each week searching for something that will increase my chances of grabbing your attention when I start. Here, though, John waits until the middle before telling about Jesus’ healing of a man born blind. Behind this miracle story, though, assumptions have been made by Jesus’ Disciples, and those assumptions are clearly seen in their question: [Read John 9:2] “His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” While today this question might seem cold and ill-informed, it is important to know that during that time, a child born with a disability, or any person with a disability, was believed to be disabled because of some sin they committed or because of some sin their parents committed before they were even born. It is universally believed that this understanding of disabilities, more particularly, being born with a disability is the reason the Disciples following Jesus asked this question. Luckily for all of us, Jesus dispels this notion of “cause and effect” theology, yet it seems without even spending much time looking, this cause and effect theology remains today. The simple truth is every time some disaster or misfortune strikes, someone will be quick to question “why” the bad thing happened in the first place. Often, they are looking for someone to blame or some way to explain it. Some have noted how the 9/11 attacks were “God’s judgment on America.” Or how about Pat Robertson’s response to the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti and its people. Sadly this former Southern Baptist Minister who advocates what he calls conservative Christian ideals saw it fitting to proclaim that “the people of Haiti were paying the penalty for the sins of their ancestors.” My Brothers and Sisters, if we take the Bible seriously, there is simply no way to connect the dots like that. With no disrespect to Mr. Robertson, such a statement is simply bad theology and bad theology abounds in our world. We find it on TV, in movies, in books, in music…and even in the church. Most of us know all too well how difficult it is to handle and deal with hardships. Then there are some of us who know how much harder those situations become when people say God is doing it to us because we have sinned. Now I am not claiming that the Disciples were mean spirited, or had any ill-will toward the blind man, in fact I read their question as a rather innocent one, especially knowing something about their cultural context. Whether they would believe that he deserved it outside of that context is unknown, but it is precisely because of that context that they wanted to know whose actions caused his disability, and like all of us who seek intellectual understanding, they approached Jesus with this cause and effect question. What is it with questions? They baffle some, they confuse others, they even anger people, and at times an angry response is probably warranted. Like those who attempt to hide an insult by including it in a question. Or those who seek to manipulate others by claiming to only ask questions, when really they are leading someone down a path of their own choosing. There are times, however, when questions are positive and helpful. For instance, some teachers and presenters love the interaction that occurs when questions are asked and answers are given. I, for one, have always loved teaching, presenting and learning in that kind of environment. For me, when everyone involved is committed, kind and loving toward other people in a group, questions allow for greater exploration of issues. In this way, we need those who have questions to feel comfortable enough to ask them. Sadly, this is not always the case because no matter how often we say “the only dumb question is the one not asked” there have been times when I have felt a lot dumber for having asked the question than I ever would have felt if I had remained silent. FBC Wilmington Baptism Years ago we were spending the weekend in Wilmington with Amy’s family. Her father was still serving as Senior Pastor of FBC Wilmington which meant I was excited to be able to hear him preach that Sunday. On this particular Sunday Mike’s worship began with 2 baptisms. One, a young girl in middle school. The other, a man who looked to be in his late 40’s. After baptizing the young girl, she left the baptistry and the man entered. As he entered, I heard people around me begin to sniffle, but then the sniffles began spreading around the congregation. Now, there are times when baptism itself can justify an emotional reaction like the one I was witnessing, but I knew something else was going on, but since this was at the very beginning of the service I had to wait over an hour to find out. At lunch later that day, Amy and I both wanted to know what all of the crying was all about. Now friends, this was about 10 years ago, but I can still remember this like it was yesterday, and I know we all have stories like that. Come to find out, this man owned a Dump Truck business and every Friday he would pick his 10 year old son up from school in the dump truck. Together they would take his last load of the day to the dump. They had done this a countless number of times. I have zero experience with dump trucks, but I am told that after the initial dumping of the contents in the box, the truck will do one final lurch so all of the small debris remaining will loosen and fall out. Well after securing the truck, the dad stepped out of the cab to check the box to see if that final lurch was needed, while the son, as usual stayed in the cab. Just as the father reached the back of the truck it lurched causing his son to accidentally bump the gear shift. As you would expect, panic set in but the dad was able to jump back into the cab and stop the truck so quickly that it actually did not complete a full rotation of the tires. After stopping it the dad realized his son was not in the cab and he jumped out and called his son’s name. Not hearing a response he yelled louder and louder, all the while walking around the truck, and then he reached a corner of the truck and saw his son’s body laying on the ground underneath one of the truck’s wheels. The 10 year old boy, his son was dead in one of the most gut wrenching accidents I have ever heard of and on that particular Friday, this man experienced something no parent should ever experience. The death of their child. This back story is so important because it was only a couple of months after that, that he was standing in the baptismal waters with my father-in-law professing his faith. So I asked Mike, how does someone experience something so tragic and then months later decide to openly profess faith. Mike said I don’t know, but I can tell you what he told me… a family member of his, who by the way is also a minister, told him that God did this because the Dad didn’t live a “good life” for all those years before, but that is not why he wanted Mike to baptize him. Mike went on to say that this man came to him wondering if Mike thought God did this like the other minister said, and it was Mike’s response that led the Dad to those baptismal waters that day. Mike shared with this dad that God loves all of creation without condition. God wants us all to experience that love, and never ever tries to shame us, or manipulate us into seeking. Lastly Mike told this grieving Dad that he had no idea why his son died, and he would not ever want to suggest that he knew why that happened, but he did no one thing and that is the God who Mike worships would never do something like that to anyone. It was only weeks after that conversation that Mike received a call from the Dad letting him know that he wanted Mike to baptize him. That Dad also made sure Mike knew that he was the very first minister to ever have the courage to say he didn’t know why tragedies happen. Throughout this man’s life, ministers, even relatives who happened to be ministers, told him that the bad things, the tragedies if you will, were his fault. That he brought it on himself and that God was getting back at him for the “bad choices” he had made at some time earlier. He had heard things like, “God’s trying to tell you that you need to make better choices.” Mike had the courage to be honest with this grieving Dad in a way that opened the door to a new understanding of himself and of God. It is so hard for us to say we don’t know, especially for those more logically inclined. If everything must have a cause and effect, then saying I don’t know is virtually impossible. This cause and effect thinking happened in Jesus’ day too. The two stories in our texts today illustrate that people have always tried to “make sense” or intellectually understand the bad stuff of life. Where Luke told of a group wondering if some Galileans had been killed and had their blood co-mingled with their animal sacrifices because of their sin, John’s Gospel brings us the Disciples asking Jesus if a man’s blindness was because of his sin or his parents sin. “Neither” was Jesus’ answer. God did not cause the man’s blindness…but God could no doubt work with and through this blind man so that God would be revealed. The Bad theology that Jesus had to confront is still with us today. It comes from manipulative preachers and “pop” psychologists like Dr. Phil. It comes from country music songs and the theological cesspool of the internet. It comes from our own life experience and our thin and flawed lines of reasoning. And it leaves us confused. We tend to cling to the idea that everything happens for a reason, which causes us to say or hear things like “you are experiencing this suffering because you did . It seems to me that we must steer clear of always placing the reason for our suffering on God. God loves all of us so much that God limits God’s self and entrusts us with free-will. And while we may not like it during our times of suffering, we tend to crave it at all other times. The truth is that most of us are more secure with rules and absolutes than we are with faith and mystery. We really do want answers to our questions… and we want them now! But as theologian and Church Historian, and my former professor, Dr. Bill Leonard, says, “Some questions still aren’t answered, but faith is possible nonetheless.” For me it comes down to 2 things: trust and the willingness to embrace the mystery and I believe Jesus said as much. Instead of making sense of it all, he led the disciples to consider the mystery. The journey of faith is not about getting all of your questions answered…as though that is even possible…or even that it is God’s desire for you. It is about yielding your heart, mind and soul to God a little more each day. So be careful about the theology you claim. Whether it is some easy, throw-away line from a movie, the simple lyric of a sentimental song, the feel good theology from a talk show host, or even the sure fire answers of a TV preacher who will never hold your hand and pray with you…be careful of the voices you are willing to listen to. Bad theology abounds…but it is not the theology of this book, and never has been. And that is the good news…and that is The Gospel for this day. AMEN! Genesis 3:1-7
Sixteen thousand – is a pretty big number, and it seems even bigger when realizing that experts have determined that on average, that’s how many words we speak each day. Now if this is the number of words actually spoken, can any of us imagine how many unspoken words are battling for space in our minds. Even without an average number of unspoken words, I believe it safe to say most of us are bombarded by words: Words we speak; Words we don’t; and Those of others spoken around us. Even thinking about that leaves me feeling a bit overwhelmed. So what kinds of words are we hearing. Well research shows that most of the words are not even facts, but are evaluations and judgments mixed with emotions. Some of these words are positive and helpful - (I’ve worked hard and I can ace this presentation; This issue is worth speaking up about), while others are negative and possibly harmful - (He’s purposely ignoring me; I’m going to make a fool of myself; I’m a fake). And make no mistake, the positive and negative nature of your words and of the words you hear have incredible impact on you and those around you. Did you know that neuroscientists have recently discovered that anything negative, fearful or hateful sticks to the mind like Velcro and you can feed it for days, weeks and months? While anything positive, happy, joyous or loving bounces off unless you take a minimum of 15 seconds to savor it. This is why we might find ourselves saying we have had an awful day when the reality is only 1 of the 100 things said to us during the day was negative and 99 were positive. Think about that, we are hardwired so that negativity, fear and hatefulness make an immediate imprint on our brain, but positivity, happiness, joy and love bounce off unless we take action to make sure they don’t. Friends, do we really need any more proof that the voices we hear and the words being spoken matter. This may be why we need constant reminders that we are the beloved children of God, created in God’s loving and merciful image. You see, God is Love, God is Good, God is Joy, And so are we. That is how we were created. God cares more about others than self. God actions are always rooted in Love. God has always sought reconciliation and justice for all. Living in pursuit of these values is within all of us too. If we claim God’s blessing on our lives and let it direct our actions and values then our words and actions will be helpful to self and others, never just to self. Our words and actions will be rooted in acts of love toward others. And our words and actions will always seek reconciliation and justice for all. If, on the other hand, we never take time to savor the goodness of being created in God’s image, then negativity, selfishness, fear and hate might take over our minds, even though our created image is the opposite. We must resist the voices that want to define our existence with negative connections to human sinfulness. With minds so easily drawn to negativity like moths drawn to a flame, voices of love, mercy and grace are critically important. This is why stories of grace poured out from one to another must be told and re-told. This is why I want this place to become a place where everyone experiences GRACE ON TAP. This is who we are no matter what the negative, fearful, hate-filled voices might say. You see, this is the voice of truth about all of us, and it is this voice that should influence our lives. The Voices of Freedom & Vulnerability The longer I study today’s scripture, the more I begin to see how important it is that we start the story of creation before Chapter 3 because Chapters 1 and 2 tell us that humanity was Originally blessed by being created in God’s image. If we start our story in Chapter 3 then we miss this Original Blessing and reduce our creation to this idea called “Original Sin”, that humans are born into a sinful nature. When we do this we do God, ourselves, and those around us a disservice. Now, make no mistake, even without the help of neuroscientists, I understand why people can gravitate to such a negative understanding of humanity. If you have lived long enough, you have probably experienced pain and heartbreak at the hands of another human being. I know I have and at times those experiences are hard to talk about, even for things that happened 10 or 15 years ago. I have even lived with a feeling of bitterness at times due to how badly I was treated and how vicious some people can be toward others. Trust me, I know how easy it is to get sucked into a life of negativity. Luckily, as far back as I can remember, I have tried to be a positive optimistic person. Both about myself and especially about others. No matter what I have always known that we are all beloved children of God created in God’s image of love, grace and mercy. This is our original blessing and I long for us to reclaim it. By starting the story there, we can begin to see how we were created to live in relation to God and each other the way God intended and deeply desires. So in chapter 2 of Genesis we find God and man existing together in relationship with each other. This is a mutually beneficial relationship with each having specific purposes. God’s is that of Creator and man’s is that of caretaker. Amazingly God entrusts the care of all that God creates to man. Gen. 2:15, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” Then after giving the instructions to freely eat from every tree in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God noticed something was missing. Gen. 2:18 “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone…” So as the Creator, God created every animal of the field and every bird of the air. Remember, creating was God’s purpose, so you know what God did with all the animals and all the birds? God brought them all to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called them became their name. That is utterly amazing to me. After fulfilling the limited role of creating, God backed off and never attempted to control or influence the man’s naming of the animals and birds. Now why is this so important you might be asking? The significance is because naming has always been a way of exercising control and influence. The fact that God wanted to see what the man would do and was accepting of the man’s decision is monumental if we want a better understanding of the essence of God’s love and what it might mean for us to be created in God’s image. Through this particular exchange, we see aspects of Freedom and of Vulnerability, both of which allow us the opportunity to discover more about God and more about ourselves. We can also learn how we are to live in relation to God and in relation to others. God consistently chooses to become vulnerable in relation to the man. First in giving the man a purpose and the freedom to fulfill that purpose and then in letting the man exercise an act of control or influence over God’s creation. God demonstrates what it means to freely self-limit in order to engage in authentic relationship with others. The Voice of Temptation So, on the heels of the incredible powerful story of authentic communal relationship built on freedom, vulnerability and love, we are introduced to the crafty tempter called the serpent, and for reasons we don’t really know, he wants to mess it all up by manipulating and exploiting the woman. Have you ever wondered if the serpent knew that being created in God’s image meant that all of humanity has some vulnerabilities? I certainly have because the serpent immediately begins exploiting. And in a matter of seconds, what seems like a good nature conversation becomes something more. As always when dealing with the retelling of someone else’s story, some statements are exaggerated and some things are added, and for those seeking to exploit the vulnerable, the door has now been opened wide. You see, this is what serpents do, they lie in wait and strike only when the time is right. Somehow the serpent knew the limitation God had previously given the man because the serpent attempted to broaden or re-define it, just not to the person with first-hand knowledge. We can see the craftiness of the serpent in his choosing to befriend the woman, not the man because the woman only heard about God’s command from the man, not from God. In this way, the woman only had second hand knowledge. In choosing her, the serpent could exaggerate God’s command. He wanted his voice to influence her, and it worked. The serpent took advantage of the situation. He lied and his lies influenced the woman’s decisions. Maybe without even fully understanding what was happening, she made choices in response to the serpent’s voice. This is what serpents do, they lie in wait and strike only when the time is right. This is never how it should be for those claiming belief that they are created in God’s image. Because to really claim this means: You choose not to exploit others in selfish ways; You choose to have a listening heart in your approach to others; You choose to limit yourself in each and every relationship. What Now? If we embrace the idea that humans are not originally sinful but rather originally created in God’s image, with the ability to choose good, choose love, choose mercy, choose grace, then how we live our lives must change. So when we think about our everyday encounters with others, with our spouse, our parents, our child, our co-worker, shouldn’t we ask ourselves: Are we exploiting them in selfish ways, or are we seeking ways to be mutually beneficial? Do we have a listening heart, or are we trying to control the situation? Do we speak or act in an attempt to control them, or do we limit ourselves? My brothers and sisters, as we leave here today: May we strive to reclaim our original blessing of being created in God’s image. May we resist the temptation of those voices calling us into a negative understanding of ourselves and others, and May the voices of love, mercy and grace become the voices of influence on our lives. Amen! Ephesians 2:17-22
There seems to be a universal longing when it comes to human beings. It is a longing to fit in, to belong. Yet there seem to be so many obstacles standing in the way. Over time my desire to know more about the reasons behind these obstacles has grown tremendously. This need led me to the work of Father Richard Rohr and for those of you who may not know that name, he is an ordained Catholic Priest and author of numerous books. Of all the theologians and religious teachers I have studied over the past few years, I have found most compelling Father Rohr’s perspective and work on the Trinity and the destructive effect Dualism. This idea of Dualism is relatively new to me, but it has helped me understanding a lot about our culture because Dualism reduces everything to 2 possibilities. Such an approach has us asking questions like, “What’s in it for me?” or “How will I look if I do this?” If we allow it, this two option approach becomes our preferred way of seeing reality. Ironically, this is even the case for those who think of themselves as Christians, and for good reason. The language of institutional religion is largely dualistic itself and this way of teaching has totally taken over in the last five hundred years. It has confused information with enlightenment, mind with soul, and thinking with experiencing. This type of either/or thinking cripples us and has us believing the only way to gain understanding is by comparison, opposition, or differentiation. This thinking only gives us two options, such as good/evil, pretty/ugly, in/out, good/bad, right/wrong, intelligent/stupid, without even realizing there may be 55 or 155 degrees between those two ends of each spectrum. It works well for the sake of simplification and conversation, but not for the sake of truth or even honest experience. The thing is, our world seems to encourage us to think this way and oftentimes in our jobs, like teacher, doctor or engineer, we are rewarded for doing so. Having two options can be great if the underlying issue itself is wholly within our understanding of the way the world works. The problem comes when we find ourselves approaching things like infinity, mystery, God, grace, suffering, death, or love in the same way, because a mind reduced to two options cannot process these things. There is simply no room for things like unconditional love because this mindset pulls everything down into a this for that system of worthiness and achievement. At its worst, two-way thinking leads to a life of competition with everyone holding a different point of view. People with differing perspectives become your opposition, never your ally. This approach then feeds our ego’s preference of making one side better than the other. The end result: we choose sides and then argue with the greatest passion we can muster to prove that the side we chose is right. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, this approach to life is not unique to us as it has been happening since the beginning of time. Throughout history we find people claiming things like, males are better than females, America is better than ______________________, or one political party is better than the other. Sadly, for most people, once this decision is made everything is understood in opposition to something else, leaving them almost blind to any other possibility. This, for me, seems to explain a lot about why people act the way they do. Then someone like Jesus comes along and lives a life so counter-cultural, so revolutionary, that some who were blind, can now see and once they see, they are transformed in ways that move them away from this limited view of the world. This is why Jesus emphasizes mercy, and forgiveness, and grace. You see, once truly experienced, these are the things that totally break dualism down. Ask anyone who has experienced being loved when feeling unworthy, being forgiven when wrong, and I believe they will tell you about a third way. They will tell you about relationships based on grace, not a quid pro quo system. This is where the counting stops. This is where the comparisons end. This is where you stop trying to decide who is in and who is out, who is right and who is wrong, who is good and who is bad. The great saints throughout history have shown us as much because this is where their spiritual life of falling deeper and deeper into that water of grace takes over and they see no need to continue asking “how much has been given to me,” or “how much do I deserve.” Unfortunately for our beloved country, this either/or, right/wrong thinking has brought us to a real low-point. The current state of affairs could easily cause a neutral observer to say, “everything appears to be based entirely on who is deserving and who is entitled.” This attitude of entitlement has become the dominant attitude throughout and it appears most may not even realize that being trapped inside of that mind leads to the kind of angry country we have today. A country where you’re just looking for the person to blame or the person to hate. Did any of us ever imagine this is where we would be? This brings me to our scripture today. While some scholars today get lost in a debate over the author’s identity, to do so, in my opinion, results in a loss of the overall message of the ONENESS OF HUMANITY, you know the Good News of the Gospel. In fact, this overall message of humanity’s ONENESS with God is central to every one of Paul’s Letters, and it is clearly found in the book of Ephesians. In a world so dominated by a Tribal mentality, you know, my tribe and your tribe kind of thinking, embracing this idea of ONENESS is almost impossible. And yet if we truly claim to be Christians, meaning followers of Jesus’ and his teachings we cannot get around this fact: Jesus, as did Paul, taught we are all part of ONE humanity, one household of God. Here again these words “17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. 18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father… You’re no longer wandering exiles… You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here… God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building… We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, 22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.” If there was ever a statement of the expansive nature of God’s love, there it is. You are no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here. God is building a home using us all – IRRESPECTIVE OF HOW WE GOT HERE! I wonder sometimes if we have lost sight of this letter’s audience. Is there a possibility that we have become so accustomed to “knowing” that we are members of the right tribe that when we read this today it doesn’t even enter our minds that this letter was written to early followers of Christ? Make no mistake, those early followers were the “OUTSIDERS.” I suspect that most of us here today have never truly known what it is like to live as an OUTSIDER. Now I’m not saying that we have not each had our own experiences of being left out, or not being chosen. Here though, I am talking about being the victim of an entire system, political, empirical and otherwise which labeled you an OUTSIDER even before you were born. This is the type of system built on the very idea of good/evil, right/wrong, in/out, and it is the system that Jesus faced head on. Yesterday our entire family, me Amy Joshua Jacob and Emma Grace went to see a movie together. First, the fact that we were able to do this is somewhat of a miracle, especially now that Joshua has his driver’s license. You know watching your children grow up and begin building lives for themselves is a wonderful thing, but it is also difficult for most parents. Not because we don’t want them to grow up and spread their wings, because we do. It is still difficult nonetheless. Amy and I wanted to take them to see Hidden Figures and for any of you who have not seen it, we would highly recommend doing so. This movie tells the story of the Space Race from a new perspective, uncovering the contributions of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, three African-American female mathematicians working at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. They wanted a chance to change their lives, but ended up changing history. These human “computers,” as they were labeled in the 60’s, along with an early mainframe computer provided by IBM, created computations that enabled John Glenn to become the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. The 1962 launch of the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 transformed the Space Race, became a symbol of American pride, and led to breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics worldwide. While watching this movie it became clear to me that another story was being told, as is often the case when dealing with racial issues during the Civil Rights era. Both stories contained themes of bravery and courage. This other story, though, told of the ONENESS OF HUMANITY. It told us about no longer being a stranger or an outsider. It broke down the walls of right/wrong, good/bad, in/out thinking and showed us a third way of existing. If we could always remember that all of humanity has been originally blessed in God’s image, then the crushing negativity of dualistic thinking might give way to the love, mercy and grace at the heart of a Trinitarian life. We don’t have to fully understand the idea that God loves all of humanity. That seems to be God’s work and far too often, we get in our own way of taking part in the house God is building. It is on us to welcome those we have labeled as strangers or outsiders because we saddled them with such labels. Right? Doesn’t today’s scripture tell us as much? “17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders… You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here…” Christ showed us a non-dualistic mindset and it will take that very mindset to process the great questions of love, suffering, death, infinity, and divinity. It will take that mindset to be unafraid of diversity and welcoming to OUTSIDERS. Luckily for all of us, being born in God’s image, receiving this original blessing, means this mindset is already within us. This is the Good News of the Gospel and make no mistake, the oneness of all of humanity violates empire and celebrates relationship. That message was revolutionary during Jesus’ day, and continues to be so today. As I close, I want you to hear these prayerful words of William Paul Young, who most of you may know as the author of The Shack, “May our courage be emboldened to take the risks of trust, to live only inside the grace of one single day, to reach across Empire’s borders and tear down the walls that mask our faces. May we feel within us the eternal life of Jesus reaching through our hands – to heal, to hold, to hug...” Dear God, may it be so! Amen! |