Fifth Sunday After Pentecost: Vigil for Orlando

This is the rough text of a sermon preached at Atlanta Bar Church's Vigil for Orlando in Atlanta, Georgia on the 19th of July, 2016, The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost.  The reading for the day was Galatians 3:23-29..   Please note that these are not exact transcriptions and that there may be some spelling and grammatical errors.

A week ago, 49 of our sisters and brothers were murdered during an attack in Orlando.   And as if it were possible for it to be worse, they were murdered because they were living their lives as who God created them to be, as members of the LGBTQ community.  And as I think back on the murders and about the events of the past week, I find myself struggling.  I feel this intense and sustained sadness, but out of that sadness, I find myself desperately needing hope.  And I don’t think I’m alone.

I think a lot of us are torn between feelings of sadness, feelings of anger; or just mourning the tragic loss of life.  And I think that in the midst of this, we are longing for hope.

Part of the reason that I find myself sad is because I read this letter from Paul to the Galatians and I am reminded that all of the distinctions that we draw amongst ourselves in this world, whether based on race, or gender identity, or sexuality, or nationality; all of the judgments that we inflict on others are the work of humanity.

I’m sad because in seeing these distinctions that we have created, I see our own complicity in the murders.  I see how the church, how the government, how so many institutions, have been silent in the face of hatred, how we have tolerated bigotry, how in the face of hatred we have not spoken out, but have stepped aside and not defended our sisters and brothers.

I’m sad because my church made overtures towards full inclusion in 2009, but left a backdoor open for intolerance to fester in the church under the respectable title of ‘bound conscience’, as if the gospel would ever condone hatred against another person because of who God made them to be.

I’m sad because 49 of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters are dead tonight because of the fear and the hatred that we as a society, and as a church, let grow unchecked in our midst, and in doing so, we perpetuated the hate that led to murder.

And while that sadness can easily begin to turn into anger, we can’t let anger win.  If we let anger win, we only continue to give rise to a similar hate to the one that left our friends dead, similar to the hate that drove the killer. 

But I do understand some of us may be angry because we are afraid that we could be next, or that our friends or our family members could be next.  But that fear keeps us divided because that fear drowns out our capacity to love.

So while I think it is possible for a righteous anger to drive us towards acts of justice, I don’t want us to give into anger based on our fear.  What I want, is to believe in love.

I want to believe in the divine love of the Creator whose love drives out fear.

I want to believe in the divine love that drives out divisions and brings unity.

I want to believe in the divine love that gives us new life.

And so I read Paul’s letter and I also find hope because I am reminded that in God’s eyes we are all beautifully and fiercefully created in the image of God.  Whether male or female, cis or trans, straight or queer, regardless of race or nationality, we all bare the same image of God and we are all loved by our Creator.

I’m reminded that the current state of the world, which seems to be brimming with fear and anger; that this state is not the end.

This is not the end.

This is not the end because we see change in our world, we see reconciliation.  We see support from groups we never expected.  We see changes in attitudes and we see individuals and institutions looking at how they have treated and spoken about the queer community and recognizing the hurt they caused and apologizing and inviting people back in; saying we cannot truly be the church and speak hatred and bigotry from the pulpit. 

We are seeing people abandoning their fear, abandoning their hate and choosing to be on the side of love and inclusion.

We are seeing evidence of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.  We are seeing the steps that lead towards the world that Paul talks about where we are all one.

I think that maybe it’s in this place that our hope and that righteous anger that is coming from our sadness can come together because the hope that we find in the God who loved us enough to die for us is the same hope that drives us to work for justice, to work for inclusion.  It’s the same hope that drives us to speak love into the world. 

It’s the same hope that drives us to not let fear and anger win, but to work to remind the world that love wins.

That unity wins…

That hope wins…

That God’s love wins.

And I know that the work of love is a challenging and trying road to walk because we are called names, we are harassed, some of us have been killed fighting for the basic recognition that all people are created in God’s image and are beautiful and loved.  But we are sustained in this by the God who calls us do justice and to show mercy, the God whose entire being is love; the God who is always present with us.  We are sustained by the body and blood of Christ, because it is here at the table that we are reminded that all are invited and all are fed and all, and I do mean all, male or female, straight or queer, Jew or Greek, all are loved.

It’s here that we can gather and be filled by the love of God so that we might continue to have hope and we might continue to bring love into this world.   And it’s because of the hope and because of that love, that we can stand together and say, ‘Thanks be to God.’  Amen.

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

This is the rough text of a sermon preached at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Atlanta, Georgia on the 12th of July, 2016, The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost.  The Gospel reading for the day was Luke 7:36-8:3.   Please note that these are not exact transcriptions and that there may be some spelling and grammatical errors.

So this has been an interesting news week.  I’m not sure how many of you have heard of the story of the student at Stanford who was raped and then her rapist was, basically, let off the hook because of the damage that jail would have done to his future.  There was no concern for the victim, no thought as to how this act of violence had damaged her life and how this new act of injustice would just continue to hurt her. 

Instead, the institutions put in place to protect us let her down and in doing so, they also demonstrated how even today we still see rampant acts of sexist injustice and we see how men in our society are given special treatment, are held to different standards, and women are so often treated as less than worthy.  And it could be argued that this continued institutionalized difference in treatment is a continuation of long held beliefs about the masculine nature of God.

So it’s interesting to keep that in mind as we look at the gospel reading today.  We find ourselves with Jesus in the home of Simon, a Pharisee.  And let’s give Simon some credit, he is making an honest effort to understand this whole Jesus thing.  He wants to see what the big deal is and so has invited Jesus into his house, is feeding him, and he wants to learn.  But then this woman, this sinful woman (and please remember, we don’t know what her sins are and the particularities don’t really matter), but this woman crashes the party and comes to Jesus weeping and washing his feet.  Annointing him with oil.  Showing amazing affection towards Jesus. 

And rather than seeing that as an act of somebody who is filled with repentance and also with gratitude for God’s grace, Simon sees only a person who is different.  He sees a woman filled with sin and, in his mind, not worthy of grace, because she has not kept the law like he has.  And he’s kinda scandalized by it all, I mean she barged into his house uninvited, she is a known sinner, and, to top it all off, she’s a woman! 

To Simon, some people just aren’t worthy of the salvation offered by God.  Some people don’t deserve the respect or grace that Jesus offered her.

But Jesus reminds us that God’s grace is not based on our own doing, because even Simon fell short of what hospitality laws demand.  Instead Jesus reminds us that God is different, and in doing so, Jesus tells us a lot about who God is and what that means for us and our relationships.

You see, for God, there is no concept of ‘not worthy’.  There is no exclusion.   Instead what there is, is love.  An open and embracing love that is extended to all of us regardless of our sins.

And I love the way that the reading for this week is framed because it begins by showing us Christ’s love for the woman who was a known sinner and it ends by telling us about the female disciples. 

Cause what we learn in these readings are that for Jesus, unlike Simon, gender is not an issue.  Jesus reminds us that we all, both male and female, have been created in the image of God.  And I think that fact is something that we don’t talk about too much.  We don’t talk about the fact that if we are all created in God’s image that it means that God isn’t just male, it means that God is female too, that God is too big to be confined by a single gender identity.

And this text reminds us that it wasn’t just Jesus and twelve dudes wandering around, but that there were also a number of women disciples as well.  And, in case you missed this detail, it was the women who were actually funding the whole operation.  So they weren’t just passive bystanders, the female disciples where at the core of the ministry.

So I think that part of what this text invites us to do is to consider the role of the feminine in the divine image.  It reminds us that discipleship is not gender specific because God is beyond gender.  It reminds us that God is both male and female, both mother and father to us.

And this isn’t a new concept or something crazy that your vicar just made up.  The Hebrew bible, both in the book of Proverbs and in the Wisdom texts talks about the ‘Wisdom of God’ in feminine terms, it refers to the ‘Sophia’ of God. What’s more, the prophet Isaiah refers to God in feminine terms, as do the Psalms, and even Jesus, in both Luke and Matthew, refers to God in mothering, feminine, terms.  There is gender fluidity in the description of God in the bible. 

And I have to admit that I kinda love that.  I love it because it is a reminder to me of how big God is and how big God’s love for us is.  When we can recognize that God reaches out beyond any box or category that we try to put him in, we can see that her love for us is truly massive.  And just like God’s love towards the woman who came to Jesus transcended any sin she could commit, and even just like God’s love still remained for the judging Simon, so too does God’s love for us go beyond anything about us.  God’s love stretches beyond our own physicality and beyond anything that we do because ultimately there is nothing innate about us that brings us forgiveness and salvation, there’s nothing that we can do to warrant it. 

And that’s how God is, fortunately, so different from us.  We tend to assign judgment based on characteristics that we see in people, so that women are all like this, or men are all like that, or queer folks are all like this other thing.  But God calls us to recognize that God is present in all of those categories, that all of the people we judge are actually made in the image of God and in calling us to recognize that, we are being offered an expanded view of who God is.

And I have a strange feeling that about now at least a few of you are wondering, why this talk of the multi-gendered nature of God.  Why is it important to recognize God as a he and a she?

It’s important because when we expand our image of God, our understanding of who is created in God’s image is also expanded.  We are reminded that God represents 100% of the people gathered here today.  And when we start to do that, we can start to remember that we are all children of God.  And perhaps, unlike Simon, we can begin to better see that salvation is freely given to all of us.

And maybe as we start to recognize that, we can let God work in us so that we are drawn towards acts of love and reconciliation.  So that we recognize the image of God in our neighbor.  So that we recognize that all the people around us are deserving of the same grace that God has extended to us. 

Sisters and brothers, ultimately what Jesus reminds us of in the text today is that in the eyes of God we are all loved.  That we are all called by name and embraced as the beautiful children of God that we are.  Male or female, straight or queer, regardless of race, we are all created in the image of God.  And what’s more, we are all brought together and redeemed by the grace of our mothering God who loves us with all of her might and saves us despite our own actions.  And because of that, we can truly say, thanks be to God. 

Transfiguration Sunday

This is the rough text of a sermon preached at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Atlanta, Georgia on the 7th of February, 2016, Transfiguration Sunday.  The Gospel reading for the day was Luke 9:28-43.   Please note that these are not exact transcriptions and that there may be some spelling and grammatical errors

Today is called ‘Transfiguration Sunday’ because the traditional way that the word in greek is translated is ‘transfigured’, but it can just as easily be understood as meaning changed or transformed.  And I can’t lie, when I think about the word transform, my mind immediately goes to old Transformers toys.  What’s interesting about it, is that on the outside, they appeared to be one thing, a car, a truck, a boom box, etc, but then they were changed, they got transformed and their true identity appeared, their real self became apparent. 

And think that’s a lot of what the text today is talking about.  It’s telling us about transformation, it’s telling us about changed, it’s telling us about being recognized for what and who we truly are.  And I think the question for us to consider is to what are being transformed and for what reason are we being transformed.

I have to admit that the Transfiguration as an event seems kind of odd.  It has a very mystical and supernatural feel to it, but I think it speak some kind of truth to us.  In this experience we have the full glory of Jesus revealed to Peter, James and John, and it is awe inspiring and glorious.  Peter is ready to just stay on the mountaintop, to constantly revel in the glory of the revealed Jesus. 

And I think that deep down, we are all just like Peter.  Deep down we all desire the experiences of glory.  We all long for those ‘mountaintop moments’ for those times when everything seems great.  When you feel like the pressures of reality have been pushed aside and you don’t have any worries and you can just be in the moment. 

And I think that more than just being the type of mountaintop moment that we desire, this Gospel reading tells us about the Jesus that we desire.  We desire the Jesus of glory, of power, we desire the God who feels like the conquering hero.  We want the Jesus who, to quote a pastor friend, ‘is lit up like the Las Vegas Strip.’  We want the glitz and the glamour.

But the reality is that the Jesus revealed on the mountain is not the Jesus that we get.  We get the Jesus who continues on the way to Jerusalem.  We get the Jesus who is betrayed, tried and convicted.  We get the Jesus who is beaten, humiliated, and murdered on the cross.  We may think we want the Jesus who is wholly divine, but we get the Jesus who is also fully human.

But we also get the Jesus who is fully present with us through all things and who fully understands both our joys and our sorrows.  We get the Jesus who may understand our mountaintop moments, but we also get the Jesus who understands what it is to be in the depths of despair.

And that’s an important thing because it reminds us that, like Jesus, we aren’t called to stay on the mountain, we aren’t called to revel in glory.  Jesus’ revelatory transformation is not for Jesus’ own personal glory.  The act of the transformation, the transfiguration, is done for our sake, so that we would understand the oneness of the Father and the Son.  Jesus does not have power for his own sake.  Jesus has power for the sake of others.  And so Jesus doesn’t stay on top of the mountain, but Jesus leads the disciples back down the mountain.  Jesus leads them back into the crowds, Jesus leads them back into the midst of the pain of the world.

So rather than seeking experiences of glory, the disciples are reminded that they are called to seek out those in need and to be present with them.  I tend to think that this was probably challenging for the disciples because I know it’s challenging for me.  I mean, mountaintop moments are pretty great.  It feels great to experience those moments.  And I think that we search for moments of glory more than just in our own lives.  I think we seek out those moments of glory in our own church.  I mean, we want the big, fancy church, with all the nice gold adornments, and the fancy altarware, the nice robes.  We want a rich church, lots of programs that make us feel good.  We want worldly success and riches.   We want a church of glory.

But again, we don’t get a church of glory.  We get Jesus on the cross.  We get a savior who forsakes glory and instead suffers on our behalf.  A savior who takes on sin so that sin and death might be ended.  A savior who forsakes glory and instead chooses us.

We get the savior who came back down the mountain to heal a child.  Jesus and the disciples came back down to carry out the gospel and to be with those in need.

And that tells us about who we are called to be.  That tells us about what we are called to do.  We are not called into glory, but we are called into servanthood.  If we are part of Christ’s church we should not be seeking personal power and glory, but we should be seeking to serve.  And that doesn’t always happen.  We can look around see brokenness and see the pain that happens when people seek to help themselves and not help others. 

But we know that we are transformed through our baptism not for ourselves, but we are transformed for God and for each other. 

So I think about where we are as a church, I think about where Emmanuel is now and where we are capable of going.  I think about the uncertainty that many of us feel and the sense of agitation that is present on many of our hearts.  And I get it, I understand.  We have concerns about where we are right now and where we are going.  But if we keep our focus on how we use the gifts with which we have been blessed and how we can use them to serve others, I promise you that this church will become a light that will attract other to it.  It will see growth.   If we reject the desire to be a church of glory and instead embrace the call to be a servant church, we will see growth.

We are stepping forward into an uncertain future.  We are stepping forward despite concerns about budgets, despite concerns about programs, and for some of us, we are stepping forward despite concerns about our very future. 

And while we may be uncertain about some things, there are some things which I am very certain about. 

First, I am certain that God is not done with us here at Emmanuel.  We still have a lot of work that we are called to be part of as God’s kingdom continues to be made manifest.  There are still people in need of hearing the good news of Christ.  There are people who still need to hear that they are beloved children of God.

Second, we are not, as Martin Luther reminds us, we are not theologians of glory.  We are theologians of the cross.  We recognize that it is at the cross where we truly are closest to God and we recognize that our calling is not to look for own personal betterment, our calling is not to create our own personal fiefdoms, but our calling is break down those empires that oppress and our calling is be alongside those who are in need, even those in need are our fellow congregation members or students who are concerned about their future.  These are the people we are called to serve too.  Servanthood can reach inside the doors of this church as well as outside.  Where there is suffering or need, the church is called to be there.

We are being transformed.  We are being transformed as individuals and as a congregation.  We are not being transformed for glory or to sew division amongst us, but we are being transformed so that can come together in love, so that we can support each other.  God has called each and every person to be part of God’s work in this world, to follow the path of Jesus and to make ourselves servants to all and through our baptism our old self has perished and we have been resurrected as children of God.  As we go out, let us cast aside our egos, our desires, our pride and let us instead walk humbly along the path that Jesus walked. 

And we know that though the path is challenging, we know that being transformed into the people of God is not easy, but we also know that just like Jesus walked with the disciples back down the mountain and out into the crowds, so too does Jesus  walk with us during this time of transition, guiding us along the way.  And because of that constant presence and that enduring love for us, we can truly say, thanks be to God.  Amen.

Second Sunday After Epiphany

This is the rough text of a sermon preached at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Atlanta, Georgia on the 17th of January, 2016, the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.  The Gospel reading for the day was John 2:1-11.   Please note that these are not exact transcriptions and that there may be some spelling and grammatical errors

So there is a long held tradition that in a crisis, we see a person’s true self come out.  I can vouch for this.  It’s amazing the number of times when, while working at CDC, we’ve been faced with a building on fire or an emergency in a lab and the people you thought would be great in an emergency, completely failed you, but the people who you would never expect, stood up and revealed their true nature.  And in today’s gospel reading, we see Jesus faced with a crisis, or a least a crisis for the host whose wedding party is about to be ruined because of poor planning (or else because of very thirsty guests!).  And since a great of the deal of the readings in Epiphany help reveal something about the nature of Christ, it’s appropriate that today’s text reveals something about the nature of God.  But more than that, through Mary it reveals to us what our relationship with God ought to be like.

There’s a pastor named Rob Bell, who in one of his books talks three words that kind of help us think about who God is.   The words he uses are ‘with’, ‘for’, and ‘ahead’.  And I think that the text today truly helps us understand how God is with us, for us, and also ahead of us.  So let’s unpack that a little bit in light of John’s story of Jesus at the wedding of Cana.

God is with us.  We know that God is present with us through our times of joy and trouble.  But what we are reminded of in the reading is that God has chosen us, God has chosen to be present in our lives and has promised to stay with us, this what is revealed to us through the entirety of scripture.  But we are reminded that we have been chosen because we are reminded that Jesus chose to be at the wedding.  Jesus was an invited guest here, he was not the host.  He was there because of his love for these people and was there to share in their joy and to be part of all aspects of their life. 

But then Mary points out that we have a problem, that they are all out of wine.  Jesus’ initial reaction is one of skepticism, and I think it’s a reaction that most of us would have, or if we did do something, we might run down to the store and pick a bottle just to say we tried to help.  Or we might just say, well, the party’s over.  I’m headed out now.

But Jesus doesn’t do either of those things.  Jesus stays at the party and doesn’t run away from the people when they begin to experience challenges, God stays with them (there’s that ‘with’ word again).  But it isn’t just a ministry of presence that Jesus provides, Jesus acts on behalf of the afflicted.  Jesus acts for the hosts of the party.

And there is that second descriptive word, ‘for’.  God is for us.  God wants to see us do well and wants to see us happy.  God delights in our pleasure and because of that, God works for us, God is active on our behalf. 

What we are also reminded of here is that God is not just active on our behalf in a token way, God doesn’t do the bare minimum.  Instead, God responds to the need of the wedding guests with abundance.  Jesus doesn’t come with just a bottle of three buck chuck from Trader Joe’s, it’s 180 gallons of the best wine that the guests had ever tasted.  Where we see scarcity, God sees abundance. 

In being a God of abundance, God sees potential.  God sees the potential of the large stones to all hold wine, even they aren’t currently being used for that.  And in our lives, God sees the potential for each of us to grow and to become more and just like God was active in transforming the water into wine, so too is God active in our lives transforming us into something more, guiding towards greater acts of love and compassion, transforming us daily.  Working on our behalf because God operates in our lives with abundance because God loves us abundantly.

I think that last think that we come to know about who God is in this reading is that God is out ahead of us, working on our behalf, making a way for us, anticipating our needs.  It’s quite possible that the host of the party never even knew that they had run out of wine.  I mean, in the flow of events, it can take a moment before information gets to who it needs to go to. It can be a minute before the host ever realizes the problem that they face.  But Jesus didn’t wait to be asked by the host of the party to help out.  And Mary never actually asks Jesus to make more wine.  Instead Jesus sees the need that is present and acts proactively on behalf of the host. 

And it isn’t so often the case that so many things happen in our lives and it is only later that we can look back and realize that God was present with us and active in our lives throughout everything.  If you watched the webcast last week with Bishop Eaton dealing with racism, this was a point of discussion for them as the panelists shared their stories of life in various aspects of the criminal justice system and both a former officer and a former felon, now both seminary students, shared how in looking back, they could see where God had guided them along their path and in fact had worked to create that path to bring them to where they are today.

In a similar way, the hosts of the party never saw Jesus perform the miracle and turn water in wine, but in seeing the result, in seeing 180 gallons of wine, they could recognize that God had been present in the midst of their lives; that God was present in their daily activities and working on their behalf.

So we are presented in this gospel reading with a vision of a God who is with us, who is for us and who is ahead of us.  A God who loves us, cares for us, and makes a way for us through all things.  A God of amazing love who cares deeply and profoundly for each of us. 

But more than just telling us about God, the gospel reading tells us about ourselves and what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  It is through the actions of Mary that we see discipleship portrayed. 

What Mary exhibits here, is faith; complete and utter faith in God.  Despite the protestations of Jesus about the wine, Mary has faith that Jesus will see the problems here and because of Jesus’ own nature, she has faith that Jesus will intercede on behalf of the people in need.

Deep down, Mary understands the nature of God so she has faith.  But what is remarkable here is what Mary doesn’t do.  Mary doesn’t tell Jesus what to do.  Mary doesn’t try to control God.  She doesn’t try and steer God.  She simply says to the servants, ‘do whatever he asks’ and then leaves the scene.  She is content to know that God is present and that whatever solution God has will be the right one. 

And this what our own prayers should look like, we ask for God’s help with our problems, but we don’t tell God how to solve them.  We just trust that if we pray to God for help, that God will provide help, even if it’s not through the means which we might have hoped.   I think that a lot of us are praying for this congregation right now after seeing our budget sheets last week.  But maybe we shouldn’t be asking God to give us more money (telling God what to do), but we should be asking God to help us continue to be a visible proclamation of the word of God in this community and then trust that God will provide the means for that to occur abundantly.

In the text today, God doesn’t act just to give wine to his mother (though that would make him a very nice son to do that for his mother), instead God acts not just for the benefit of one person, not just for Mary, not just for the hosts, but God acts to the benefit of all of the people at the wedding.  I firmly believe that God is active in this place, not just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire community.

And in the first act of Jesus’ public ministry we are given a picture of a God who loves us enough to be present with us in all things, who loves us enough to want the best for us, and who loves us enough to go out ahead of us, and work proactively on our behalf.

This is also the first public miracle of Jesus, the first public miracle of the God who came down and dwelt amongst us.  And when we gather together we remember that God still comes down.  The same God who performed miracles with water and wine is present with us at the table in the bread and wine; present with us each and every day, providing us life and providing it abundantly.

And it is because of that enduring presence, that consistent action on our behalf, because of the love that was shown to the wedding guests and is shown to us; because of the God who is with us, and for us and ahead of us, that we can truly say, thanks be to God.  Amen.