Month: September 2015
Fear, Faith and a Child Shall Lead them!
Grace and Peace to you, beloved
Abandon your fears
Cradle your soul in childlike faith
Leap into the Loving Presence
Of the One who Welcomes All,
Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Lord
Amen.
(pause)
There is this unseen force that drives us
Away from the loving presence of the Creator God
Diverting us instead into this unbreakable cycle of fear
Fear, which grips and shapes us as human beings
Fear has the potential to dominate our journey
(share with the congregation about what fear grips me regarding the very real night terror I had as a child before my family and I went on vacation. The plane that we were traveling on went down in flames and I could hear the screams. I woke up visibly upset and tearful. My mother upon hearing my night terror gave me the option of not going perhaps, but I went with huge trepidation. Nothing happened; I’ve been on planes since then but few and far between; each moment I have heard of some ridiculous and horrible plane crash I vow to find an alternative route, and usually do. Share about Wendy who is a Ph.D student and flight attendant who has recently told me, it is her goal to get me onto a plane; Share about all the solutions that other people have jokingly shared with me, from medicinal to therapy to having conversations with actual pilots. Pause before asking the congregation about their fears).
What fears weight you down,
My sisters and brothers in Christ?
What fears peel away the layers of joy from your very being?
Or are we too afraid to name them?
Can you share your fears in this sacred space?
(Ask the congregation to name some of the fears that they may have and affirm all of the answers. Pause before continuing).
We are not alone
In the fears which haunt us
(pause)
There are fears in this room that are even too deep for words,
For speaking them into being,
Would place a harsh spotlight upon ourselves
Where we would be bathed in colors
Of selfishness and foolishness
I wonder what fears were manifesting
In the midst of the conversation
Of these foolish disciples
as they were arguing
Who among them was the greatest?
Anxiety
Apprehension
Insecurity
Jesus reminds them again
In our Gospel text this morning
That this path towards forgiveness
Mercy,
Rebirth
Was littered with the stark reality of changes,
Potholes
and Pain.
“The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands,
and they will kill him…”
This was not their ideal march towards glory triumphant
(As I was) Reminded of a clip from the movie Glory yesterday
Comes the realization,
That greatness comes through giving up of oneself
For those who have nothing
Who have been robbed
Denied
Of anything resembling power.
(pause)
What fears deprive us
From being connected from who Jesus Christ is
And what Jesus holds for us?
This common theme of fear
And having no faith
is apparent throughout the Gospel of Mark
lived out through the disciples
But what would you do,
If you were there?
Even as a disciple, we must remember
That they were human first
(pause)
Fears of not being able to feed 5,000,
They hadn’t a clue about leaning on their faith
Even as they had witnessed the miracles from Jesus
(these) Feas of not trusting in Jesus
in the midst of calamity and storms
Forgetting that Jesus would never leave them
Or forsake them
(The) Fear of not trusting the power that Jesus was and is,
They were still blinded to God’s Mighty Power flowing
Through Jesus Christ
Fear of going down an unknown road
They were more worried about securing their place
Setting up that Plan B, C and D
Just in case this whole Jesus deal fell through
Fear of hearing the truth
about how the Kingdom of God would come into being
Not understanding fully
That Jesus’s death is the Grace and Mercy
That both they and we are in need
They were too wrapped up in their fears,
To see that the resurrection shatters all of our fears
How scary is it for both the disciples and for us, beloved
When we are fearful because we do not have Jesus right here
And now
To cling to
And instead,
We are left to live out and proclaim the Good News?
(pause)
What’s going to happen if we reach across the aisle
And actually engage in a conversation
with someone new in our community
someone who unexpectedly we are drawn to?
What happens if we reach across a sidewalk,
A street, A shelter,
To join hands with those who are the least of these,
To be recognized publicly as a witness with the least of these
What happens if we actually sit down,
Inviting someone to tell their story
Whose existence causes our spirits to weep
And yet, how their faith blossomed in the midst of hell
Renders us speechless
(pause)
What happens if we kick open the doors of our church
And welcome conversation
And fellowship
With someone who is Muslim,
Who blesses and greets us into their midst
Because they love God just as beautifully as we do
Or Buddhist,
Who shares prayers and wisdom to uplift us in this battle
Toward the beloved community
Towards healing
(pause)
Or simply through the delight of children
Who are fascinated with Creation
Like through the eyes of a 14 year old Sudanese-American boy
Who just wants to share with us,
Something wonderful that he has done
To see the gifts of knowledge that pour from him
Because our hearts should be delighted
(pause)
One day when the glory comes
It will be ours, it will be ours
One day when the war is won
We will be sure, we will be sure
Oh glory
(pause)
Do you hear the Good News?
The Good News is that because God Loved US, beloved
“and after three days, he will rise again”
Jesus reminds us,
Proclaims to us
He will NOT LEAVE US.
He DID NOT LEAVE US
Our fears were crushed into dust
On that CROSS
Resurrection GLORY!
Yes its okay to be fearful,
Because in those moments of fear,
Jesus Speaks to Us
Jesus Assures and Soothes Us
That HE IS THE ANSWER
Washing our fears away!
(pause)
Do you hear Jesus calling us
Giving us the Power of the Gospel?
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all
And servant of all.”
Do you hear Jesus charging us,
Commanding us
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me..
Whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me..”
But GOD, The Creator
The Redeemer
Who calls us to welcome the least of these-
Refugees,
the homeless
The atheist
The agnostic
The loner,
The thief
The troubled
The lost
Yes, beloved
Even you and me.
(Pause)
One day,
There will be no more fear,
We won’t have to worry about flying on planes,
Or heights
Or mice
Or the darkness
Or pain
Or death
One day our fears will dissipate
Because the Risen Christ will be among us
In Glory.
(pause)
Thanks Be to God.
words hurt, The Word Heals
Grace and Peace to you,
My sisters and brothers in Christ
With welcoming the infusing of the Holy Spirit
Glued to our being
So we have no other recourse
Than to share the Living Word
Of forgiveness and of truth
Amen
(pause)
“I Love You”
“We have Missed You!
“Welcome!”
“So Glad To See You!”
“God Bless You”
“Peace of God Be With You.”
(pause)
These are words of welcome
Of Healing
Of Agape
Of Hope
These are words that we all need to hear
Especially when we struggle with the blues
So we are able to breathe fully and deeply
Reminding us of God’s Presence
When life blossoms into its foulest
Throwing a wrench into our journey
Robbing us of things most treasured
There is power in the spoken Word
More and more along this journey,
We need to hear a Word
Affirming our path
Asserting our essential nature
Encouraging us to be in relationship
(pause)
But we are also painfully aware,
The power of the spoken word
Can seamlessly slice into us
Inflicting the deepest wound
To which sometimes we never recover
“You’re stupid!”
“Worthless!
“We don’t want your kind!”
“You’re Hopeless!”
“God hates YOU!”
(pause)
Time and again
“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father,
and with it we curse human beings,
who have been made in God’s likeness”
God’s Word
Meant for liberation
In humanity’s hands
Has been fashioned into a tool
Of Annihilation
Leaving the entire body of Christ, broken
Useless
Damaged
(share with them the class that I took at McCormick Seminary and how damaging God’s Word has been used to chain people to the ugliness of domestic violence and sexual abuse; where pastoral leaders have perhaps unwillingly sent people back into harmful situations based on what it says here in the Bible.)
God’s Word
Has been twisted to fit into the small box that we place God in
Because it is difficult to face the truth of God’s Word
That Jesus Christ
“.. himself is before all things, and in Him all things hold together”
“Who do people say I am?”
Who is Jesus Christ to you, beloved?
How have you encountered Jesus?
How did this ancient faith community encounter Jesus?
Perhaps it was reflected in their words as they shared with others
Jesus is-
Son of Man
Son of God
Jesus is
John the Baptist
A prophet
And still some saw Jesus as-
A blasphemer
Heretic
Peter uses this interesting word, when Jesus inquires of him
“You are the Messiah”
(pause)
What does Messiah mean?
Messiah meant anointed one,
Which can mean Blessed, Successor, crowned
Or even King
Which means supreme, royal, Absolute
Which means unconquerable, powerful
I wonder how many of the disciples followed Jesus
Because they saw Jesus as King
Who would vanquish all of the wrongs that had happened
And raise up their long suffering people to an elevated status?
But when Jesus Christ begins to testify, to teach
To proclaim and prepare those who followed Him
With what was about to happen to His life,
This was not the victory march that any of them,
Even us
Are expecting
Even today many use the word King Jesus
Jesus Christ sits on a throne
Jesus will judge those who have been unfaithful
Jesus will make those who are sinners pay for their unfaithfulness
(pause)
That is the perception of many sisters and brothers in Christ
Jesus, Strong and Mighty
Gives us everything we desire
As long we stay on the straight and narrow, right?
But Jesus witnesses that God, Our Father,
Our Redeemer
Meets us in our suffering
Our sorrow
Our loss
When we are exposed and open
To this world.
Jesus
Is to give up His Life
Upon the Cross
For all of our sins
For forgiveness
Regardless of our faith wavers
Or how much we give the appearance of doing the right things
THAT is how the Kingdom of God
Will conquer this world
THAT is how God manifests God’s self
Into the God that we desperately need
Through the Cross
Through the experience of death itself!
(pause)
Peter was having none of this-
“Jesus what are you saying?
Dude, come on, you promised us triumph and success and glory!”
This is not going to motivate anyone
This is not what any of us signed up for.”
(pause)
“If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me.”
What is Jesus charging, challenging the disciples
And us, with?
“For those who want to save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake,
and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
(pause)
How confusing the disciples must have been
Hearing Jesus’s words
Jesus are you saying we must stick to this path,
That we should not foster relationships
Enjoy fellowship with our sisters and brothers
Not to sing, to dance, to love?
Never to embrace Creation
Never to fully live our lives here and now?
Should we just run to Calvary and wait for you to return there?
(pause)
Here too, these same scriptures
Have been used to condone and excuse abuse
We are NOT called to bear our burdens alone
Carrying our shame, our sins
To be silence about the unforgiveable
which is perpetuated upon us
THAT IS NOT what the risen Christ calls us to-
Because the Good News is that CHRIST ALONE
Bore the weight of the suffering of this world
Of us, beloved
Upon the Cross
And Jesus SPOKE A POWERFUL WORD
FATHER FORGIVE THEM, for they know not what they do
IN THAT MOMENT, Jesus Christ was TRANSFORMED
FROM DEATH TO LIFE
And we beloved, were transformed
FROM CONDEMED TO FORGIVEN
(pause)
So when Jesus calls us to take up the cross, and follow Him
Jesus is calling us to be immersed in this world
To give of ourselves
To actually reach into that ditch
The side of the road
Into that dirty space
Across the fence
And bless someone with words of LOVE
“God is with you,
What can I do to ease your pain, your burden?”
To fight for those who have been forgotten
To stand up and say WORDS OF TRUTH
“NO MORE will you abuse, my brother, this elder, this child”
“NO MORE will you toss aside this person
Because of their status
Because of who they are”
“NO MORE will you deny these people, this tribe
With the right to LIVE,
Because you think God’s Word condemns them”
NO MORE WILL WE ALLOW GOD’s WORD TO BE MISSPOKEN
WE ARE CALLED TO SPEAK TRUTH TO LIFE
(pause)
And even though that road will be hard, rough
That we will be ridiculed
Because we do not feed into the harsh words of this world
Because we believe in a God of Grace and Mercy
Because we cling to the Cross just as Jesus Did
Because THROUGH THE CROSS
God Reveals God’s SELF
And God’s NEVER ENDING LOVE for US,
All of US, beloved
(pause)
Words hurt
We as humanity have still not learned
how our words can hurt one another-
But GOD’S WORD,
Jesus Christ
God’s Word heals
Spoken from the Cross
“It. Is. Finished.”
Pain-Finished
Rejection-Finished
Injustice-Finished
Oppression-Finished
Evil-Finished
Death-FINISHED
(pause)
Thanks Be to God.
And Now, A Commercial Break
Afterthoughts for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Struggling With Mark, Struggling with the Naked, Ugly Truth
God’s Word is challenging,
Moving,
Provoking
Confusing
We look to these Scriptures for guidance,
For answers
We lift up saints
Examples, Models of Holy Perfection
But here, in this Holy Text
We are sometimes thrown for a loop
By the parables, and stories
And sometimes the meaning is not always so black and white
These Scriptures are countercultural
These Scriptures expose everyone’s faults
Errors
Prejudices
(pause)
Humanity is hardheaded
We would rather conform to the world’s directives
Than God’s commandments for our lives
God calls us out of our poorly constructed strongholds
I won’t say comfort spaces
Because as humanity, we’d rather corner ourselves
Refusing to share,
Refusing to reach out
Refusing to live out what God has called us to do
(pause)
Initially,
I was going to share how the Word continually impacts
Our lives
I’d been wrestling with what Mark was projecting
In this one verse which I had heard all my life
But now, I had a different understanding
(pause)
We have to realize there is a gaping hole of Jesus’s life
We are not privy to
So when Jesus utters this slur-
Dog?
Think of where she is positioned when she addresses Jesus
She is at his FEET, weeping, pleading
For healing, for reprieve, for peace,
She is a Syrophoenican Woman
Not
One of the chosen Tribe of people of God
She’s a Gentile
Pagan
Her speech, accented with diverse tones
Her skin, tinted in different hues
But she recognizes who Jesus is
She recognizes what Holy Power Jesus cradles in His hands
And she is desperate
She can not protect her child from the demonic
that encroaches on their lives
What Mother would not go to ANY length
For the protection of her child?
(pause)
But Jesus responds like this?
“Let the children be fed first,
For it is not fair to take the children’s food,
And feed it to the dogs.”
(pause)
Is this Sarcastic Jesus?
Some commentaries conclude that this was a test,
But for whom?
Is this Jesus’s way of saying,
“I will only heal you if you acknowledge
That I am your Lord and Savior?”
Or was Jesus reacting based on how he was raised
The societal influences and clues
How this ancient society reacted and treated those
Who did not have status,
Who were outsiders
Perhaps Jesus mimicked the way we do sometimes
When we see the homeless
Or immigrants, who based on the color of their skin
We assume they are undocumented
Or the way they wear their clothes
Unkempt
Tattered
Because perhaps, not a stitch of compassion has been shown
Or showered on their communities
Neighborhoods
Which are seen as dumping grounds for garbage and waste
We, in our righteousness conclude
They are nothing more than leeches
Their only purpose is to consume what we have
Our knee-jerk reaction when they come Scavenging
For our dropped, wasted crumbs of tangible things
Is to turn away,
Muttering perhaps
Or even admonishing to their face
“There are others more deserving than you-
We call them not by who they are
Sister
Neighbor
Friend-
But what we consider their unforgiveable sin
Drug addict
Alcoholic
Thief
(pause)
Society has conditioned and taught us to be wary
Guarding our personal space,
Our time
Our treasures
From those people
Yet, funny how James reminds us clearly-
“Is it not the rich who oppress you?
Is it not they who drag you into court?”
Aren’t the oppressive economic establishments
Who are slaves to the bottom line, to greed
Who siphon off our precious time
Who hoard and steal our talent that we give freely
Who decimate small towns and annihilate small businesses
Should we not go with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ
And call to them, remind them, of the hurt they have inflicted
On their fellow siblings in Christ and in Faith?
(pause)
Is it not oppressive structures throughout our government
Those who swore to serve ALL?
Through passing of laws which ultimately reduce the quality of life
For our neighbors, for family members, for us
Through economic restructuring supposedly
for the common good,
Benefiting in all actuality,
The chosen few
(pause)
Many people proudly proclaim this land
As the place for the Tired, poor, huddled masses
But the reality is that there is a systemic issue of being ungenerous
Unwelcoming
Hoarding spaces
For only a certain cluster of people
Only a specific people deserve of God’s Grace
It says right here in the Bible, right?
(pause)
Meanwhile everyone who is different
In every way, shape, sound
Which includes us, my sisters and brothers in Christ
Are pushed to the margins,
The wastelands
To desperation
(pause)
I was supposed to preach on Mark
And then Wednesday happened
Scrolling through my Facebook Feed
And I saw THAT picture
And I slammed down my laptop
And my spirit wept
That child
3 years old
Family in desperation,
Begging for a peaceful place
Where that child should have been laying down for a nap
Or laying down to feel the beauty of the wild in his face
Or some creepy crawly thing moving past
NOT instead feeling the harshness of an endless ocean
Separation from his family
Alone.
(pause)
The ugly truth is that people of faith refuse
To follow JESUS
Who CLEARLY time and again,
JESUS states to us
Love your neighbor as yourself
Yet Jesus utters this ethnic slur
Was He loving His neighbor in that moment
Didn’t we hear last week in Mark,
Where Jesus states that it is the things deep within us
That pollute our actions and our beings against our neighbor
(pause)
“If you show partiality
You commit sin
You are a transgressor”
Where is the Good News?
(pause, pick up one of the pictures and display it)
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Good News is
“…God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith
and to be heirs of the kingdom
that he has promised to those who love him”
The Good News is
Jesus Christ experienced life here, among us
Was one of us
So that He understood our shortcomings
Our prejudices
Our –isms
And calls US to Love one another
Because of what He gave to US, here at the Table
Gave up for US, here on the Cross
