The Rev.Bethany Peerbolte
September 20, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version 1 Peter 5:1-11; Matthew 5:3 For a few years I worked in an elementary school with kids in first grade. One of my responsibilities was to monitor the kids on the playground. Most days it was just standing there talking to the other adults. Some days kids would ask us to play. And some days it would be like the day I am going to tell you about. This day took place after three very rainy days, which means the kids had had indoor recess three days in a row. If you know anything about indoor recess you probably just gasped. Indoor recess is a poor substitute for running around outside. It does very little to help the kids decompress and expel energy. So, after three days of being inside, this day was the first time they were able to run around outside. Chaos does not begin to describe the scene on that playground. When the memory pops into my head all I see are blurs of colors shooting past me as the kids flew by running at full speed. From the center of this pandemonium came a scream. All recess monitors become very skilled at distinguishing between a scream of play or joy and a scream of distress. This was distress. Kids are also good at knowing the difference. The flashes of color stopped in their tracks and I could follow the eyeline of the kids to the one who was in need of help. When I got to the source of the scream, I saw a boy hanging from the play structure bridge by the drawstring in his pants. The relief that he was physically okay and the sight of him parallel to the ground with this hyper cinched waist band made me smirk a little, but I pulled myself together to go help. First, I scooped him up in my arms to relieve the pressure of the string. I asked him if he was okay and generally kept some small talk going while I got my bearings on what was happening. What I could pull together is that he was running around the slippery play structure, slipped, and slid between the baseboards of the bridge and the hand holds. The drawstring in his pants was perfectly pinched between two bridge boards. While I was getting info, other adults had shown up and we realized the drawstring was not only pinched in the baseboards but now wedged under a bolt. When the kid was dangling it had also gotten twisted around a few times. It was a mess. The easiest way to free the kid would have been to take his pants off, but since every other kid on the playground was watching, we decided that wasn’t a great choice. We tried to untangle the string, pull harder, and bounce the bridge to get it unpinched. We tried everything. We decided the draw string needed to go and an adult went to get some scissors. While we waited, we kept chatting with the kid to keep him calm. Other students came over to tell him jokes. We even got a magic trick shown to us! Finally, the adult came back with the scissors and we cut the drawstring to free him from the bridge. When I was able to put the student down, he looked at the rope still tied to the bridge and looked at us and said “Thank goodness I had that rope!” I looked at him confused and said, “But the rope is what got you caught.” He relied, “Yeah, but if it hadn’t gotten caught, I would have hit the ground.” Amazing perspective. If only we could see the world through the eyes of children. This might seem like an odd story to bring up while talking about the poor in spirit, but that verse was so short I thought we needed a little narrative example to latch onto as we talked today. This story popped into my head as I was reading through different translations of this verse. Looking at different translations is my “day one” practice. It helps me better understand the scripture through the eyes of a variety of translators. Translation is not as straightforward as we would like it to be sometimes. When a person or organization sits down to do a new translation they have to decide what takes precedent. Maybe the most important decision to be made before a single word is translated is if they will translate word for word or the general message. You honestly cannot have both. Often there is not an English word that equals exactly what the original language was saying. This verse actually is a great example of that. The word we read as “poor” in the English is much more nuanced in the Greek. The Greek carries with it the idea of poor but hopeful, or on the way up out of poor, or poor in one sense but rich in another. Just saying poor really does not cut it in English. So, we lose some meaning when we commit too much to word for word translation. The other major way translators can choose to do a translation is general meaning of scripture. These translators will read a whole sentence or paragraphs and study it to understand what the original author wanted the original audience to get out of it. Then they ask, “How would I convey that same idea to someone today in my language.” The Message Bible is an example of this kind of translation. Matthew 5: verse 3 reads very differently in The Message Bible. It says, “Blessed are those who are at the end of their rope.” Now you can see why I thought of my friend hanging from his drawstring. When we translate this way, though we do lose some detail, things that don’t seem to impact the meaning get lost. So, when we read scripture it's good for us to have a balance of word for word translations and general meaning. Balance is key. Whether Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” or “Blessed are those who are at the end of their rope,” these are not places we really want to rush to be. In fact, all the beatitudes are not exactly places we want to be, even if they are places where God blesses us. I don’t care how many blessings are given to those who mourn, I don’t want to be there. If there are blessings at the end of my rope, great, but I’m not hoping to be there any time soon. What the beatitudes do for us, is reassure us that when we were there, or when we are there again, we know of God’s presence and blessing. Like Pastor John said last week, these are pieces of good news for the parts of life we aren’t particularly thrilled to be in. Blessed are those who are at the end of their rope. I think it is fairly safe to say we have reached an end of a rope at some point this year. The pandemic, the election, the protests, losing a loved one, whether it is a family member or friend or beloved public figure. This year has put butter on all our ropes and we are slipping further and further down toward the end. The beatitudes help us see like that child on the playground. Thank goodness for the rope. The rope that keeps us from hitting the ground. The rope gives us time to scream out, and for help to find us. At the end of the rope is God waiting to hold us until we can be untangled or cut free. I’ve heard people say: “I just stayed bed today,” “the only thing I did was eat and sleep,” or “I cry too much lately.” These are end of the rope statements; however, they are framed by a worldly understanding of what being at the end of a rope means. Not how God sees it. The words “just” or “the only thing” or “too much” imply judgment on ourselves. That judgment is based in the assumption that we aren’t meeting our productivity quota. The world lies to us and tells us that being productive is the most important and worth-giving thing we can do. We need to be productive with every minute. It's why we check our emails at red lights, our brains think, “I have 45 seconds. How can I fill it to be productive.” This mindset forces us to fight against rest. Rest is not valued as productive enough. And yet we need it to survive. If we looked at those end of rope statements through the lens of this beatitude they would sound more like: “I was at the end of my rope and was blessed to stay in bed today. I was at the end of my rope and was blessed to focus on nourishment and rest. I was at the end of my rope and was blessed to release my emotions with tears.” This beatitude begs us to not see rest as a bad thing, it does not take away from your value. Surrendering is not the same as giving up. Let me say that again…surrendering is NOT the same as giving up. If that student had kept squirming and fighting the drawstring, it would have gotten tighter and he would have been in a much more dangerous situation. His willingness to just lay in my arms was the most helpful thing he could have done for himself. When we degrade ourselves for resting, we never get a true rest. “I should be (blank),” kills the healing power of rest. It negates all the blessings at the end of our rope. It’s like expecting Jell-O to congeal without putting it in the refrigerator. You can’t rest while thinking about the “shoulds.” When it is time to rest, truly rest (and I’m sorry to inform those of us who want to plan and schedule everything, you can’t always schedule the rest) there will be days when too much was thrown at you and you slip down to the end of your rope suddenly. You may need to surrender to dangling at the end of the rope at a very inconvenient time. If you fight it, you will become more tangled. Rest comes when we open ourselves up to being thankful for the rope. Thankful for the push towards the blessings that wait for us there. Thankful for a moment to be in the arms of God and have that be the only thing keeping us from hitting the ground. Of course, we will need to get back to being productive at some point. Having a purpose is important to well-being too. Balance is key. Being hyper focused on the individual daily tasks will wear us thin. And resting from the challenges of life will leave us empty. We need to live with a balance. And know that God is just as proud of us and just as present with us in both places. When we have it all together and when we are at the end of our rope. The Rev. Dr. John Judson
September 13, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Isaiah 30:13-19; Matthew 5:1-12 She was lucky to be alive. She had lived with cardiomyopathy, a disease that was hardening the muscle of her heart, impairing its function, for years and it had been getting progressively worse. It made it more and more difficult for her to function in any meaningful way. Then one day her heart stopped. She collapsed to the floor of her kitchen. Fortunately, her daughter was home, found her, called 911 and then proceeded to perform CPR. The paramedics arrived in less than three minutes, revived her and took her to the ER. She was in intensive care for a couple of weeks, then rehab and finally home. She was grateful to be alive. But then the bills began to arrive. They totaled more than one-hundred-thousand dollars, and my friend and her husband had no insurance. Her husband worked as a motorcycle mechanic at a small shop that offered no benefits. My friend could not work because of her heart condition. They had no way to pay. A short time later she called me in tears. I wondered what else could have happened. I asked her what was wrong. Her response stunned me. “John,” she said, “There is nothing wrong. My bills have all been forgiven.” It turns out that the hospital’s foundation had decided to pay her bills and those of her doctors. She saw it as a miracle. I saw it as wonderful news. Wonderful news. Have any of you ever had wonderful news? And by that I don’t just mean good news; good news that we got into the school we expected to get in to. Or good news that our stock portfolios have increased. Or good news that I got the promotion I was expecting. No, when I say wonderful news, I mean the kind of news you were not expecting at all in the midst of difficult times? Over the years people have shared wonderful news stories with me. Wonderful news that seemed to come out of nowhere and out of impossible situations. And what I have discovered is that the level of wonderfulness of wonderful news is always in direct proportion to the difficulty of the circumstances out of which it arises. The gift of wonderful news is that it can sustain, empower and inspire us in tough times. And so this morning we will look at two stories in scripture that are about wonderful news. So, let’s get started. The first story concerns the nation of Judah, of the Jewish people about seven-hundred years before the birth of Christ. Judah was a small, independent nation. Under King Hezekiah, it had done its best to be faithful to God in difficult circumstances. But now the nation faced assimilation or possible annihilation. Sweeping across their part of the world was the army of the neo-Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians, led by their king Sennacherib, were destroying every nation they encountered, and Judah was next. In desperation, Judah made a mutual defense pact with Egypt, even though the great prophet Isaiah warned them not to. The warning had been appropriate because prior to the Assyrian arrival, Egypt backed out of the pact. Judah was all alone. But then there came wonderful news from Isaiah. God spoke to the prophet and told him to deliver these words. “Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.” And God did answer them. Before the Assyrians could take Judah, they withdrew because of conflict at home. Those words and God’s actions were wonderful news for the people of Judah. The second story is a more familiar one, but one whose wonderful news is not quite so obvious. Let’s set the scene. Jesus is preaching in Galilee, a portion of Roman occupied Judea that is facing an existential threat to its very existence. It is fact the same threat Judah had faced; assimilation which meant religious and cultural annihilation. The people of Galilee, who were proudly Jewish, were facing assimilation at the hands of Greco-Roman culture. There was daily pressure to abandon the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and adopt Greco-Roman customs and religion in order to survive. All around them the cultural outposts of this foreign culture were growing. In addition, the Romans and their Jewish allies were scooping up the best land and forcing the people to work as day laborers subject to the whims of the wealthy. And every attempt to right these wrongs with rebellion had been brutally put down. Into this difficult moment came Jesus declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God was at hand. In his teaching, his healing, his exorcisms the people saw the words of Isaiah coming alive, “Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.” God had heard their cries. Jesus was the answer. The Kingdom was arriving. This was wonderful news. That being the case, the question becomes for us, what do we do with these rather odd opening words from Jesus’ mountain-side teaching. What do we do with these words about the people being blessed in the midst of their pain and fear; in the midst of their struggle? I say this because by telling his audience that they are blessed, when they mourn, when they are spiritually dry and especially when they are being oppressed, appears to be trivializing the predicament of the Galilean people. Some interpreters have argued that Jesus was telling the crowd that sometime in the future all would be well…but the Greek is clear that Jesus is speaking in present tense. The people are blessed now. Others interpreters, especially more recent ones, have, by translating blessed as happy, argued that Jesus was telling the crowd something akin to don’t worry, be happy; again almost trivializing their struggle by saying, don’t worry about how badly your life stinks at the moment, just be happy. And while that may fit our cultures desire for trivializing the pain others feel, it doesn’t fit with the world transforming work that Jesus was about. So, what are we to do with these beatitudes? What I would suggest is that we follow the lead of Biblical scholar N.T. Wright, when he translates the Greek word markarious, not as blessed, but as “wonderful news” as in, “because of Jesus there is wonderful news for…” Wright does this because he believes that in Jesus there is wonderful news for all people…and especially for those facing tough times. Listen again to the beatitudes with this translation…. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for the pure in heart, for they will see God. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Because of Jesus there is wonderful news for you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. My friends, what I am trying to say is that the beatitudes are not about some pie-in-the-sky future. They are not some happy-sappy attitudes we are supposed to have when our lives are in turmoil. They are descriptions of what is happening in the radical inbreaking of God’s kingdom into the world through the presence and power of Jesus of Nazareth. In other words, there is wonderful news for those who hurt. There is wonderful news for those who struggle. There is wonderful news in and through Jesus Christ. Where this is leading us, is that over the next two and half months we will be looking at the wonderful news in these beatitudes as we examine them one at a time. My challenge for you on this day then is this, to remember a moment in your life or in the life of someone you know, that was transformed by wonderful news. Then give thanks to God for that wonderful news, and allow it to give you hope during this week. The Rev. Dr. John Judson
September 6, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Ecclesiastes 3:16-17; Romans 14:1-13 The rules were clear, and it was also clear that he had violated every one of them. Before the beginning of every presbytery meeting, meaning the meeting of local Presbyterian churches, the moderator goes through the rules in order that all the commissioners know what is and is not appropriate during discussion and debate. The basic rules are 1) that the commissioner addresses the moderator and not the assembly, 2) speaks for or against the motion being discussed and 3) makes no personal attacks. People are usually respectful of these rules, but this person decided they did not apply to him. First, he turned his back on the moderator and addressed the assembly. Second, he did not speak for or against the motion. Third, he attacked the makers of the motion. He made it clear that whoever had written this motion had done so for nefarious reasons, that they were being dishonest and that they were no good, low-down varmints…ok so those are my words characterizing his attack. Over the years I have reflected on that attack and it dawned on me this week that this individual had had a sudden recurrence of one of humanity’s most prevalent viruses…and that is, judgementalitis. Yes, that’s right. He had a recurrence of judgementalitis. What is judgementalitis you might ask? It is the unstoppable desire to judge and despise others. There is no blood test for this virus. You can’t stick a swab up the nose or draw some blood. It is a virus that one can diagnose by its primary symptom. Though we may think we know the primary symptom, I want us all to be clear on what that symptom is and is not. I will begin with what is not the primary symptom. The primary symptom is not disagreement. People can disagree with one another without being judgmental. People see the world in different ways through different lenses and so they can disagree about any number of things. In fact, one of the great beliefs of our Reformed tradition is that people of good will can legitimately disagree. So, what is the primary symptom of judgementalitis? The primary symptom is, in the Apostle Paul’s words in verses three and ten, “despising” the other; meaning making a judgement about another that the other is less than nothing. What I mean by this is that a disagreement becomes not about the issues but about the character of the other. We decide that another individual is less than nothing, which is the Greek definition of the word translated despise, meaning that individual is not worthy of love, care or compassion. These declarations of less than nothingness can be based on everything from a person’s political beliefs, to their religious affiliation, to the color of their skin, to the language they speak, to the nation in which they were born, who they love, how they dress, the level of their education or to any other attribute which we don’t like. It might be nice to pretend that judgementalitis is a recent virus, but it is not. I say this because it infected the church at Rome. We can see this clearly when Paul spends most of this part of his letter telling the people not to judge. Though he speaks in general terms about not judging and not despising one other, he mentions two topics over which people are judging one another. The first has to do with eating meat. Some Christians only ate vegetables, and some ate meat. The disagreement in this case is not about which is better for you physically, but which is better for you spiritually. What I mean by this is that since most of the meat Romans ate would have been sacrificed to the gods, some Christians believed that by eating meat, they were being unfaithful to Jesus. Others said meat was meat and it didn’t matter. Unfortunately, this disagreement led each side to despise the other; to see the other as less than nothing. The other issue had to do with when people worshipped. Some people said you worship on one day and others on another day. Again, these disagreements led to each side despising the other…and if we read between the lines, led to the church being torn apart, for that is what judgementalitis does, it tears apart churches, families, communities and nations. I don’t know if you have noticed, but there has been a sudden nationwide outbreak of judgementalitis. We have become a nation in which those on the “other side” are not simply people with whom we disagree but are people whom we can despise. To see this all we need to do is listen to much of the political advertising and discourse that is tearing this nation apart. It is not about policy but about the person. And it is helping to spread judgementalitis to more and more people. I say this because it has infected me. I find myself thinking and saying things that I know are judgmental. And with each passing day it is harder and harder and harder to disagree and not despise. Maybe this is not your story, but if it is, the question becomes, is there a cure? Is there a surefire vaccine to inoculate us from this virus? Unfortunately, the answer is no, there is not. However, there is something we can take in order to lessen the symptoms. And that is the bread and the cup at the table of Christ. I say that taking the bread and cup help to diminish the symptom of judgementalitis because when we eat and drink at this table, we are reminded that Christ died for all of humanity. Jesus gave his life for Donald Trump and Joe Biden, for Gary Peters and John James, for red states and blue states, for Democrats and Republicans, for socialists and free marketers, for people of all languages, religions, races, sexual orientations, economic levels and abilities…for all of us. And in so doing Jesus declared that none of us is to be despised, none of us are less than nothing, but that we are all loved. We are all one family, with one parent, God above, who is the Lord of all. My challenge for you this morning then, is, as you come to the table, to envision those whom you have despised and see them standing at the table next to you; see them receiving God’s love and mercy, even as we receive it. Then, watch for the symptoms and as they arise, and come back here, to the table, again and again and again. The Rev. Dr. John Judson
August 30, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 13:8-14 He could hear the noise all the way down the hallway and he knew who was making it. The principal had hoped that this new teacher would do the trick and that she could handle “that class.” You know “that class.” Every year in a school there is “that class” of kids who cannot be controlled and who become famous for being unruly. And this, “that class” had driven their previous teacher into resigning. In great frustration the principal got up from his desk and made his way to the classroom. Using his principal voice, he gained control and then took the teacher out into the hallway. Even though it was her first day of teaching, ever, he expected her to do better and to bring order out of this chaos, otherwise the students would never learn anything. The next day, there was no chaos in that class. There was only order, for the woman who would become my mother had gotten the message and made sure that her class would no longer be “that class.” Order versus chaos, the story of the universe…the story of the Bible. I say that order versus chaos is the story of the Bible because from the opening verses of the scriptures until the final few chapters of Revelation, this book (the Bible) tells the story of God’s desire for and work toward order over chaos. We see God bringing order out of chaos in Genesis chapter one, when God calms the angry chaos of the waters. We see it in Revelation when God forms a symmetrical heaven on earth city where all the chaos of the world is kept outside of its gates. And what we need to note about this desire and work of God for order is not done because God has a control complex, but because order allows life to flourish. Chaos on the other hand brings nothing but destruction and death. Unfortunately for the world, we human beings almost always seem to choose chaos over order…meaning we choose war over peace, violence of reconciliation, abuse over love, discrimination over equality and injustice over justice. We choose things that might for an instant bring order, but they fail to create an environment where real human flourishing can take place. We offer illusions of order, rather than the order God desires. The fascinating thing about God is that God never gives up this desire to create an orderly creation in which all persons can flourish. We see this desire for order in God’s choosing a people to be a light to the world in order to demonstrate what human flourishing looks like, that could show the world what human flourishing looked like. Knowing full well that the Hebrews were no more inclined to order than any other people, God gave them the Torah, the Law, which was intended to order their lives in such a way that every member of their community could reach their full potential and that the community itself would be, in Biblical terms, a blessed community. We can see this orderliness in our Old Testament Lesson this morning which was the Ten Commandments. These commandments, just to be clear, are only a small portion of God’s Law, but they can give us a sense of how God’s order was to safeguard all persons and insure their flourishing. This vision of God as a God of order and of the Law was central to the Jewish identity, but not so to the identity of the early Gentile church. The church in Rome, as a largely a Gentile church, was composed of those who had spent their lives worshipping the gods of Rome and understanding order, not as intended for the flourishing of all people, but as the power of the sword; the power of the rich and powerful citizens and their allies to crush the vast majority of human beings in the Empire beneath their boot. It was called the Pax Romana, meaning the Peace of Rome, but it was peace and flourishing only for those at the top of the heap. The question for Paul then was how could he help the Roman Christians understand what this God of order and not chaos desired of them? How could he help them become a community of order and not chaos without giving in to the brutality of the Empire? This would not be easy…and yet Paul was able to do this with a single word, love. Paul begins this short section with these words, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul can tell his Roman readers that love fulfills the Law, not because it takes the place of the law, but because when human beings love one another, meaning when human beings look to the wellbeing of others as much as or more than to their own wellbeing, when human beings work to insure justice and resist injustice, when human beings offer forgiveness rather than seeking revenge…all of which are outgrowths of love, then there is true order. There is human flourishing. We can see how Paul connects the dots between order and chaos when he writes, “let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” The word “honorably” in this text can be better translated as “in order,” as in decently and in order. Meaning to live not in the chaos of lives that tear down individuals and communities, but as if we are clothed in Jesus Christ, and live in love. So what about us? How are we to live out this love? One way to do this is to step out and love our neighbors that we have not met, that we do not know, that are different from us. And one way for us to do this as a congregation is to live into our commitment to be a Matthew 25 Congregation. For those of you who watched my Wednesday update, I let you know that after two months of prayer, discussion and discernment, the session had agreed to have us become a Matthew 25 congregation. Matthew 25 is a movement within the PCUSA, our denomination that asks congregations to engage in one or more of the following demonstrations of love as part of their work; building congregational vitality, eradicating systemic poverty or dismantling structural racism. Each of these is an expression of love of neighbor. So what does this look like exactly? I really don’t know. But in my Wednesday video update I said that I would answer a question, which was, what does being a Matthew 25 congregation require of us? I did so because many of you have expressed concerns that by becoming a Matthew 25 church, we might be obligating ourselves to do all sorts of outrageous things. If this is what you thought, then you are correct. We are called to do all sorts of outrageous things because we are called to love. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are called to choose order over chaos in that we are to love in such a way that all human beings have an opportunity to flourish. You may say to me, “But John, we have always tried to do this.” And that is true. I believe that to the best of our understanding of the world we have indeed tried to do this. But what Paul reminds us is that loving in this way; loving such that God’s justice is made real in the world, isn’t an option. It is a debt we owe the world. I say this because Paul begins this ode to love with these words, “Owe no one anything, except to love.” What this means is that sacrificial love for all human beings is the debt we owe to God for God’s infinite love for us in Jesus Christ. God loved us enough to become one of us, die for us, forgive us and continue to be for us. The debt we owe is to be a community that works toward a flourishing world for all people through working toward eradicating systemic poverty, dismantling structural racism and building a vibrant community. In these ways we show forth the love of God for all human beings. My challenge to each of you for this coming week is to pray about and consider which of these areas might be of interest to you as a way of showing love. I do so because the Diversity, Inclusion and Justice Committee of our church will be proposing that the session create workgroups to address each of these areas of loving our neighbor and I want each of us to be ready to participate in those groups. So pray, discern and seek God’s leading as together we begin to repay our debt of love to God by loving others. The Rev. Bethany Peerbolte
August 23, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version 1 Samuel 8:4-18; Romans 13:1-7 Before I read these verses, I want to build some contexts around the scripture. Oftentimes when we look at scripture we've heard before or we have heard used in a very specific way, we have a hard time hearing it in a new way. I want to free us up from some of those previous interactions so that we can truly hear it for today. I want you to think for a second who you would trust more when making a purchase, a sales person or a friend. If a salesperson came to your door with a product trying to get you to buy it, there would be some added filters you would use as you listen to their sales pitch. There would probably be some skepticism as you listened because you knew they were receiving benefits from selling the product. You would probably ask lots of questions too to make sure they had good intentions. But if a friend came to you with a product that they loved, the filters of skepticism and questioning would probably fall away. This is because we already trust our friends to give us good information and know they want the best for us. Our friends are also not receiving any benefits from selling to us. This is a problem that arose on the social media site Instagram. There were content creators who had accounts that were followed by hundreds of thousands of people. Their followers trusted these internet celebrities and logged in just to see what they were saying about issues. Companies saw these accounts and started to pay the content creators to promote their products. When the product was promoted people bought in hordes because they thought the recommendation was coming from a friend when in fact the person was being paid to sell the product; they were receiving a benefit to make the endorsement. Instagram eventually stepped in and made a rule that if a content creator was promoting a product because they were being paid, they had to be honest in their post about the benefits they were receiving. This does not mean the product placement stopped but it did mean that consumers had an honest experience with the product and could make a decision based on the reality of the quid pro quo. This is similar to what Paul is doing in this text today. Paul is a friend talking about something he values and believes we should value too, but he is not outside of receiving benefits from the thing he's promoting. Paul is a Roman citizen. Now there were two ways to become a Roman citizen at this time. One way was to be born within the empire of Rome. The other way to become a Roman citizen was to buy your citizenship. This was an expensive endeavor but ultimately worth the price. ONLY Roman citizens could own land or make contracts with other citizens. If somebody robbed a citizen, they had the right to sue, they had the right to defend themselves in court if they were accused of something, and they could request that Caesar hear their case first hand. Only Roman citizens could run for civil or public office, they had special immunities from taxes and legal obligations. Citizens could not be tortured or whipped, they could not receive the death penalty unless they were guilty of treason and most important of all, they were the only ones who could vote. I should say here, women were allowed to be Roman citizens but were exempt from many of these benefits of citizenship. But Paul as a roman citizen and a man was given all these things. When we hear Paul endorse the Roman government, we need to remember he speaks from a place of privilege. There were many more who could not afford citizenship and thus did not benefit from the Roman system of government. One might wonder why Paul would participate is such an unjust system. Well, Paul does not think government or being a citizen is a bad thing or something to revoke. If you became a Roman citizen you were required to put aside the sense of the individual and focus on the good of the community. This ideal gave Paul hope that Christianity and Roman rule could coexist. When Paul talks it is as a friend, but he is also a salesman who will continue to receive benefits if we buy into the system he promotes. We need to activate our skepticism and question the sales pitch. What Paul is talking about in Romans 13 is a message that was heard by two different types of people, citizens and non-citizens. We need to do the work of both sets of ears when we listen. We need to listen and hear what a citizen would hear, and listen to hear what a non-citizen would hear. So let’s put on one of each of those ears and let us listen to Paul. (read Romans 13: 1-7) When we have these two types of people, these two different ears listening, we can hear how they would interpret this message very differently. To the citizen, this all sounds great. They would be nodding their heads, yes, only criminals go to jail, only those who do wrong receive punishment. Paying taxes helps us all. The government is indeed ordained by God and obeying government is like obeying God. They hear Paul and feel proud of their system. For the noncitizens, this is troubling. They realize Paul is trying to sell them on something that gives him great benefit. They have questions and skepticism. If those who do wrong get punished, why aren’t they allowed to accuse those who wrong them? If the government rightly wields God’s wrath, why are Roman citizens who murder noncitizens not tried for their crimes? If taxes should be paid, why do Roman citizens get tax breaks? They personally know people who have been innocent yet still received a punishment. They have been taken advantage of by citizens and had no way to seek justice. They ask, God has ordained this? The system’s benefits are not trickling down to them and I’ll bet they are not so keen to obey as Paul requests. But they don’t get mad at Paul because they also know he is a friend of theirs. Someone who uses his Roman status to help. They can hear in these last few verses their truth. Respect those who are due respect, and honor those who are due honor. The system is not perfect, and there are aspects that need amending. They hear Paul calling other Christians to use their privilege as Roman citizens to work and vote in a way that might help everyone one day receive the benefits. If there is a place that does not deserve respect, work to make it better. If there is a leader who does not deserve honor, use the vote to elect one that does. The citizens who stuck around to listen with both ears heard Paul’s full message. Unfortunately, many Christians only listen as a citizen and have used these verses to justify all kinds of horrific systems. Some of the articles I read this week made me so mad I wanted to rip this page out of every Bible I owned. The thing that saved my collection is that I do believe Paul is right, I just don’t think Christians have heard him with both ears. We have listened as citizens, benefactors of the system, but not as outsiders. We hear these words, nod along in agreement and walk away before he gets to the part about giving respect and honor only when it is due. We miss that the system is not yet perfect and that we need to work to make it better for everyone in the community. Paul sees how useful government can be. Because the Roman government exists, and he just so happened to be born on Roman soil, Paul lives an easier life. Not an easy life by any means, but it is easier as a citizen verses a noncitizen. What Paul does with that privilege is advocate for those benefits to be extended to more and more people. Paul affirms that government in and of itself is not innately bad, it is actually ordained by God. And we are called to work with the system God ordains to do the work of blessing the whole community. In youth group, when we learn about commandments and God’s law, we play a game called, “The game with no rules.” We break out into groups of four and each group is given a standard deck of cards. Each player gets 5 cards and is told the object of the game is to play all five cards. As for the rules, each player secretly thinks of a rule for how the cards need to be played. They do not tell anyone else what their rule is. Then they begin. As you can imagine the game is pretty slow. Every time someone tries to play a card that does not meet your rule you have to yell, “no!” and the play continues to the next player. It's frustrating, maybe some people get a couple cards played but I have yet to see anyone win this game, it goes on and on and on with no one making much progress, and everyone yelling, “no!” at one another. When we don’t know the rules, we have no idea how to play and have no chance of winning the game. Laws help us know what is allowable. They free us up to do the things that are allowed, otherwise we live in fear that our next move will get us in trouble. God’s law tells us no killing, no lying, respect your parents. We know how to function as God’s people, and what is expected of us. God approves of governments because it is there to create and enforce the laws. Laws that free us up to live without fear of making a wrong move or being punished unjustly. God wants us to be free to live. The only way to be free is to know what is allowable in the community, otherwise we are stalemated and constantly yelling, “No!” at each other. We will never get anything done unless the rules are clear. After the card games have stalled and everyone is frustrated, I tell the players to reveal their rules and try to play the game. This inevitably reveals that some of the rules are unfair. Here are some of my favorites rules I’ve has kids make up:
When these unjust rules exist, I let the students vote. We gather all the rules on a white board and vote for our top four favorite rules. Of course, they still vote for rules that benefit them, they have the citizen ear listening, but they also realize that rules that are fair to others will also be fair to them, the noncitizen ear. Then we play our game with the new rules and everyone has a much better time. This kind of synergy is what God wants for us and what Israel learns in our first reading today. Israel has been making their own laws and enforcing them for a while. As they interact with other nations, they realize everyone else has a king. They start to think a king would be so much easier. They wouldn’t have to argue at committee meetings, decisions would be made so much quicker if one person had to make them all, and they would be able to send that one person off to meet with other nations instead of having to send a group of leaders. Israel thinks a king sounds awesome. God however is not convinced. God has given them a good system – ordained a government that has brought them through hard times and kept them safe. God has enjoyed watching them work together, live together, and obey together. Sure, they have had disagreements. It’s gotten sticky a couple of times, but in the long run they are doing so well. When they ask God for a king, God is offended. Why not work within the system in existence? God is okay with them making changes but God does not want them to give up their power to one person. God knows humans are flawed and how power can corrupt. Finding one good king is a feat but finding a line of people who will make good decisions, fair, humble, wise decisions. God does not want Israel to open itself up to the disappointment and failure a king can cause. The system God gives Israel, the one Paul advocated for, is one where the people work together, where people have the power. For Israel, Paul knows, and we also know, this kind of system has issues, but it’s issues are no excuse to stop participating in it. It is God ordained. We are God ordained to make it work. When Israel wanted out of the system God said, “NO.” Paul is trying to get Christians to stop turning away from the system, because Paul knows together their power can make it better. They can use their immunity to torture and impose the death penalty, to speak truth loudly and hold the system accountable, something Paul does a lot in his lifetime. Paul is known to speak truth that Rome did not appreciate, but their own rules protected him from the consequences. Paul is able to use his status as a Roman citizen to say things and point things out that the noncitizens would be killed for saying. He uses his voice to amplify their experience. Paul knows the power of the Christian vote within Rome. If every Christian used their vote to make the system a little more just, they could move the massively unjust Roman system one step towards looking like the kingdom of God. The reason God wants power to stay with the largest group of people is because it is the best way for the Spirit to move. Presbyterian polity is set up around this belief. In the Presbyterian tradition we believe the Spirit works best in groups. It’s fine if one person feels called to something, but we like it better when groups of people are inspired to the same cause. It shows that the Spirit is clearly pointing the community in a direction, not just one outlier. My favorite example of how we let the Spirit move among groups for decision making is at the highest level of our Presbyterian governing, at our national general assembly. At GA, the national church discusses and votes on denominational issues. It is where we decided to allow the ordination of women and affirmed same sex marriage. Every presbytery sends commissioners to GA, representatives who vote on these motions. Any commissioner who is sent to GA has the freedom to vote their conscience. This means if they left home thinking they would vote one way on something, they can change their mind at any point. No one is allowed to tell them they need to vote this way or that way. They are not delegates who cast a vote on behalf of others. They can vote however the Spirit leads them in that moment. The reasoning behind this is so as the debate on the floor is heard, they can have an open heart and open mind to what each voice is saying, and vote the way they believe God wants them to. This may be the piece Christians forget the most. We need to let the Spirit enter our decision making. We need to pray about the choices we make. We need to remain open to the movement of God’s Spirit even if it means changing completely from one vote to the next. We have been ordained by God to choose the course of our government. This is what early Christians missed when they just criticized Rome and neglected to participate in the government. Paul is urging them to see that the system actually allows them to do God’s work of uplifting the downtrodden. Christians listen with both ears, one as a citizen who receives the benefits of the system, and as a noncitizen. With our power we can demand all rules are transparent and not kept secret so we can assess if they are fair for everyone playing the game. Paul is begging us to be committed to participating in the system even though it is flawed. It would be easier to let someone else make the choices for us. But the Spirit needs all of us to do her work. So…. let’s start now and pray today and every day that we make and keep making a system that is due all our honor and respect. he Rev. Dr. John Judson
August 16, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 23:32-34 I want to begin with two incidents that occurred over the last week or so. The first concerns a 72 year-old disabled vet. He was staying at a motel when he noticed a young woman and her boyfriend enter without masks. As the couple passed by, the vet spoke to the woman reminding her that state and local ordinances required that masks be worn indoors. The couple passed on by without incident. Later though, the boyfriend returned, spoke to the vet and then proceeded to attack the vet, hitting him so hard that he broke the older man’s jaw and rendered him unconscious. The second story took place in a Utah Walmart, where a woman was shopping without a mask. Another shopper, with a mask, confronted her. The maskless woman explained that she could not wear the mask because of a medical condition. In response the outraged mask-wearing shopper, grabbed the maskless shopper and threw her to the ground, injuring her. I wish I could say that these are isolated incidents, but they aren’t. Just google “mask violence” and it will return thousands of results. My question for this morning is, how did we get here? And I will guarantee that most of you will immediately have an answer. But what I want to offer to you, is that we have come to this point in our national life because we have followed the fivefold path of dehumanization. What is the fivefold path of dehumanization? It is the path that human beings have been following for as long as there have been human beings that lead people from peace to violence. Here is how it works. The path begins with a precipitating event. This event can be a war, a plague, a drought or any other life changing societal event. The path continues with this event creating, what Bowen Systems Theory calls, free-floating anxiety. This is anxiety that ripples through society, unnerving both individuals and the community. Next comes blame. If there is free-floating anxiety, there must be someone to blame. Someone is at fault. That someone can be a leader, or more often, those on the edge of society; the marginalized. Once someone has been found to blame, the path moves toward separation. If it is “those people” who are to blame then we need to separate ourselves from them, so that we are not contaminated by their presence. Finally, the path leads us to the conclusion that those “separated” people are not fully human, and therefore are deserving of violence and punishment. If you want to see how this works in the Bible, consider the Hebrews in Egypt. The precipitating event is the rapid growth of the Hebrew people. Anxiety arises among the Egyptians because they fear being outnumbered. There is blame when the Egyptians, rather than seeing this growth as a blessing on the Hebrews by their God, see the Hebrew population growth as an attack upon the nation. There is separation when the Hebrew people are made slaves. Finally, there is violence when Pharaoh orders all the Hebrew male children to be killed. We can also see the fivefold path of dehumanization in the first Roman persecution of Christians which happened when Rome burned, people became anxious, the Christians were blamed, then rounded up and finally killed in the arena. If you want to see how this has operated in the United States, we can see it clearly in the internment of persons of Japanese heritage after Pearl Harbor and the attacks on Muslims following 9/11. The question before us as followers of Jesus is, how ought we to respond to this process of dehumanization? The answer Paul offers us is that rather than dehumanizing, we are to rehumanize. We are to work toward moving ourselves and others off the fivefold path of dehumanization and on to a different path; on to the five-fold path for rehumanizing those around us. Here is Paul’s fivefold path for rehumanization. First we shower blessings. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them,” Paul writes. By this Paul means that our first response is to treat those who have dehumanized us, or whom we have dehumanized, as full children of God, by blessing them; by blessing them in whatever fashion we choose, meaning such things as acts of compassion, offering kind words and showing patience among them. When we offer these blessings we are saying that these people are worthy of God’s love and grace. In this way those we have dehumanized become human to us again. Second, we share space. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.” It has been said that until we share laughter and sorrow with another then we are not connected. We are merely strangers. Part of the task before us then, is to be present with those whom we have dehumanized, or have dehumanized us, so that we can experience the joys and pains of life together. In this way those we have dehumanized become human to us again. Third, we are to show humility. “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.” Part of dehumanizing others is when we believe that we alone hold the truth and the other does not. By so doing we not only break fellowship with others but we see them as less worthy, as lesser beings who don’t possess our superior knowledge. By showing humility we open ourselves to entering a truly human relationship with another. In this way those we have dehumanized become human to us again. Fourth, we are to stop all violence. “Do not repay anyone evil for evil but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all…beloved never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God.” Violence is never acceptable because it robs people of their humanity. Violence states that the person attacked is not worthy of life, or existence, and therefore is not fully human, and so we eschew violence. In this way those we have dehumanized become human to us again. Fifth, sow love. “If your enemy is hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not overcome evil with evil but overcome evil with good.” As I said in another sermon recently, to heap burning coals is a sacrificial gift of heat and warmth. It is a gift of love. Our calling is to sow love, meaning to cast it to all, whether they have dehumanized us, or we have dehumanized them. One way to see love is as spiritual weed-and-feed. Love feeds the good spiritual lawn and destroys the evil weeds around us. So we are to cast our love to the world. In this way those we have dehumanized become human to us again. What does this five-fold path look like? It looks like the life of Jesus. Jesus showered the world with blessings by healing people physically, mentally and spiritually. And he healed all people, not just those who liked him. Jesus shared space. One of the great accusations about Jesus was that he ate with sinners, tax-collectors and all the wrong kinds of people…including those whom his society had dehumanized. Jesus showed humility. He never demanded the greatest position for himself and was always willing to debate those who disagreed with his interpretation of God’s will. He was non-violent. His movement was one of non-violence. It was one of healing and not destroying. Finally, he sowed love. he sowed love for men, women and children; for rich and poor; for Romans and Jews. By going to the cross he sowed love for all the world…and especially for those who crucified him; who saw him as less than human. He sowed love in their lives by asking God to forgive them. This is what the five-fold path of rehumanization looks like. Before I finish, I want to add one caveat to this fivefold path, which is that this plan is not intended to put anyone in physical or psychological danger. I know that Jesus went to the cross, but this is not what he or Paul are asking of us. Paul puts it this way, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” By adding, if it is possible, Paul admits that there are times when this rehumanizing process may not work; that there are times when following the plan might lead to our becoming victims of violence. This is not Paul’s intent. This is not Jesus’ intent. Even so, our task is clear. We are to be rehumanizing agents in the world. My challenge for you for this week is this, to ask ourselves, how am I rehumanizing those whom I have dehumanized and who have dehumanized me? The Rev. Dr. John Judson
August 9, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Isaiah 58:1-8; Romans 12:1-8 What is your love language? This is a question that I ask every couple in premarital counseling. I ask because I believe knowing your partner’s love language is a key ingredient in making for a lasting relationship. For those of you who don’t know what love languages are, they are the ways in which we receive love; actions that make us feel loved. The idea of the love languages came out of a bestselling book called, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. In the book, Chapman lists five ways in which people give and receive love. These are: quality time - you hang out and actually listen to one another; words of affirmation - you complement one another; gifts - you give things to each other; acts of service - you do things for one another; and physical touch – which includes everything from holding hands...to, well I will let you use your imagination. The theory is that if each partner learns the love language of the other and then puts those languages into practice, then the relationship will be better. With that in mind, my question this morning is, what is God’s love language? I realize that asking about God’s love language may appear to be a strange question. It is a strange question because even though we speak of God loving the world, or of us loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, many of us might not be accustomed to thinking of how our loving God makes God feel. I say this because western Christianity has often wanted to speak of God as the unmoved mover, or as the one who doesn’t need anything from us human beings. That, perhaps even to speak of God feeling loved, is to anthropomorphize God. Yet, if we listen to both of our texts this morning we will discover that God does have at least one, and perhaps more love languages. I say this because of a single word that occurs in both our texts. The word is translated as “acceptable.” I have to admit for years when I read the word, acceptable, I heard echoes of my teachers, when they returned a paper, looking at me and saying with a sigh, “John you can do better, but this is acceptable.” Implying that my effort was only good. However, both the Greek and Hebrew words translated as “acceptable”, carry a different and more often used meaning, which is “well pleasing”, meaning to warm the heart of another. We see this word in Isaiah 58:5 and Romans 12:1-2. In each case the writer is trying to tell those reading the text what makes God’s heart glad. In Isaiah, God’s heart is warmed by loosing the chains of injustice, untying the cords of the yoke, setting the oppressed free, sharing your food with the hungry, providing the poor wanderer with shelter, and clothing the naked. This is easily understood, so the question before us, is what about Paul? What does Paul have to tell us in this, his letter to the church in Rome? The answer to this question is two-fold. The first answer Paul gives us is that what makes God feel loved, that warms God’s heart, is when we “present our bodies as living sacrifices” to God. Paul says this action is our spiritual worship. For those reading Paul in the first century, this image of a sacrifice would be both familiar and easily understood. A sacrifice was an object left at the Temple of your particular deity. A sacrifice was something given, completely and unconditionally to God. For Paul, what pleases God is the giving of our whole selves over to God. We hold nothing back. We give our heart, soul, mind and body. We give over our actions and reactions. And when we give ourselves completely to God, it pleases God, because it means we are giving ourselves over to the deep and abundant life that God desires us to have. Like a parent who feels a sense of joy when their child embraces a life filled with meaning, purpose and joy, God does the same with us. But this is only half of the answer. The second half of the answer comes, appropriately enough, in the second half of this section of Paul’s letter. The second half of the answer to the question, what is God’s love language, is the act of each of us playing our part in showing forth Jesus to the world. Let me explain. One of Paul’s favorite images of the church is that it is the body of Christ. We see this in verse four, “…so we who are many, are one body in Christ…” I would argue that when Paul speaks of the community of Jesus followers as the body of Christ, he is using this image as more than a metaphor; he actually means that we are the body of Christ in the world. We are the current incarnation of Jesus in the physical world. We re-present Jesus to the world around us. Therefore, we are to show forth Jesus to the world around us. The problem is that none of us can show forth Jesus alone. None of us have all the gifts and attributes of Jesus. Only by working together then, can we show forth Jesus. Only by assessing, or as Paul puts it, "...thinking with sober judgment…” about ourselves, and discovering how we are gifted to show forth part of Jesus can we be the body of Christ in the world. I realize that in this time of Covid-19, it is not easy to see ourselves as the body of Christ. When we cannot be in the same space with one another; when we only see each other on video screens; when we cannot share a coffee pot and goodies after church, it is difficult to think of ourselves as a single body. Even so, I believe that this is the perfect time for us to understand what it means to live God’s love language. I say this because all the gifts mentioned in this section; the gifts that we are to use to show forth Jesus to the world, are gifts that can, and should be used, outside of the church building. In other words, while Paul’s offers gifts lists in other letters, those gifts are intended to help build the community internally. I believe that these gifts are those that are intended to be used, as I have said, to show forth Jesus to the world. And what better time to do this than in this moment when people are angry, bewildered, divided and discouraged. To understand this, I am going to take us on a quick tour of the gifts…and as I do, see if any of these might be one of your gifts. Prophecy – prophecy is the gift of being able to speak the truth about God’s loving justice as Isaiah did. It is to speak up for the poor, the hungry and the marginalized. Where can you speak up? Ministry – this means serving. The Greek word is diaconos, from which we get our word deacon. It means to serve those who are in need. How can you help another? Teacher – this means to help people understand the love and grace of God. Though we often associate this with clergy, it is what parents and friends can do with those with whom they spend time. With whom can you share God’s love? Exhorter – this means to encourage others. And if there is ever a time when people need encouragement it is now. Who can you encourage? Giving – this means to give of our financial resources. Where are the needs in this moment greatest where you can share your money? Leading – this is helping to guide people along the path to life. Where can you take the lead in helping others find their way? Compassionate – this is showing compassion to those you encounter. Where can you show compassion in this often uncompassionate world? Each of these gifts are attributes of Jesus. Each of these gifts are needed to show forth Jesus to the world. And only when we work together, each doing our part can we as a community show forth Jesus to the world. Only when we work together can we speak God’s love language. My challenge for you then is this, to ask yourselves, what is my gift, how am I putting it to work to warm the heart of God and the heart of those around me? August 2, 2020
The Rev. Dr. John Judson Listen Watch Print Version Exodus 12:33-39; Matthew 10:40-42 I was flummoxed. I read these words from Jesus over and over and had gotten nowhere. I read commentaries and looked at the root meanings of the words in them. All the commentaries either skimmed over these verses or said they were about supporting missionaries. Most of the word discussions were pretty perfunctory. None of this study helped me to make sense of what Matthew was trying to tell us in these closing words of Jesus’ teaching about the mission. So I quit thinking about the text and went for a walk to try and clear my head, which is what I often do in these moments. And it was on my walk, that it dawned on me that I had been thinking about these verses like a good twenty-first century westerner and not as a first century Jew. When I changed my mental orientation, I realized that these verses are not about supporting missionaries, but they are a word picture, lodged within a cultural container. I realize that this may sound a bit, well, lecture-like, but bear with me. In order to fully appreciate the word picture, I need you to do something for me. I need you to open your arms as if you are embracing someone. If you have someone to embrace, then do that. If you are by yourself, embrace yourself. Feel that embrace. Ok, you are experiencing the word picture. The word picture is that of embracing. Next is the cultural container. The cultural container is that in first-century Judaism, to welcome someone could mean to simply open one’s home and feed someone or let them spend the night, but it could also mean …and here’s the key to understanding Jesus’s words…to embrace both a message and manner of life. We can see this in Jesus’ words “Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” And “whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous.” The word picture is that of embracing the message of the prophet, meaning embracing God’s justice for the world. Embracing the righteous person means embracing a just way of life, for that is what it means to be righteous. And the reward, which is mentioned in both passages, is that of being a citizen of God’s inbreaking Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, when people embrace the message and manner of God’s loving justice they become citizens of God’s kingdom of heaven. Now with those reoriented images in our mind, let’s return to verse 42, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” The word picture is of others embracing the message about and the manner of living God’s justice., which we are to live and share. And when anyone embraces the message and the manner, then they are embracing Christ. They are embracing Christ for it is Jesus who preached and lived fully the justice of God’s loving kindness. And when anyone embraces Jesus, they embrace the one who sent him, meaning they embrace God. By embracing God’s message and manner of living justice for all, people embrace the beating heart of God. And when they embrace and are embraced by God, they more fully become citizens of God’s kingdom of heaven come to earth. It is this reality, that of helping others embrace the message and manner of God’s loving justice so that they too can be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, that makes our mission so important. This is why we are called to continue this mission of striving for justice even when it is uncomfortable and controversial. This is why we are called to continue this mission even when it is not fashionable or trendy. We are to do so because it is the pathway to help all persons enter into and be connected with the heart of the living, God, so that they too can proclaim and embody the true nature of God, that of justice for all. My challenge for you then on this communion Sunday, is that as you take the elements, that you see in the bread and cup, the depth of God’s love for all people, and God’s redeeming love poured out for the world…then ask yourself, how am I continuing to invite people into God’s loving justice and into the heart of the living God? The Rev. Bethany Peerbolte
July 26, 2020 Listen Watch Print Version Exodus 10:21-29; Matthew 10:34-39 I want to give you a few names of famous people and I want to see if you can find the common thread between them. Marsha P Johnson, Pablo Picasso, Temple Grandin, Coco Chanel, John Lewis (read them again). Did you find the link? Stonewall, painter, the link is that these are all people who thought the world could be a better place and they devoted their lives to making their vision become a reality. Marsha saw a world where people could safely live their truth and be who they are. Picasso saw a world where art was not restrained by rules. Temple Grandin saw a world where even the animals we eat were treated fairly. Coco Chanel saw a world where what we wear said something about who we are. John Lewis saw a world where every human being could live with dignity and respect. Before each one of these people made their innovation, the lens through which they saw the world was not respected or widely held. Many more people wanted to keep the world as it was. It was not until these people devoted their lives to their vision of their world that the world changed for the better. Their understanding of who they were and what they were called to do made us all realize we can be better. You can bet for every single one of them there were those who said their world view was off. It’s against the law to dress that way, Marsha. No one will like your chaotic painting, Pablo. You have autism, Temple, no one will listen. Women will never buy a dress that isn’t corseted, Coco. Don’t rock the boat, John, just get over it and let it go. These naysayers were probably everywhere, even in their own home. In the face of those who wanted things to stay the same, these trailblazers mustered the strength to stay on course and help make our world become what it is today. They set their vision of the world above any earthly relationship. Their priorities are what helped them not lose focus and gave them the power to get through the tough times. Priorities is what Jesus is teaching in Matthew today as well. Jesus says, set God as your highest priority. If you do that you will find yourself on opposite sides as your loved ones, and those disagreements will feel like you are carrying a cross to your own death. It will be like dying, but keeping God as your guide will ultimately lead to gaining a better life. These verses from Matthew can be hard to hear. Any time Jesus is honest it is hard to hear. We like to sit and listen to the calm Jesus calling the children to his side. We like to ponder the beautiful parables and envision a world where peace prevails. It is harder to watch as Jesus flips tables and sends people away for having small faith or says his way will require swords. Yet here we are with that Jesus today. A Jesus that does not hold any punches but tells the whole truth. It is recorded here that the path Jesus leads us down will turn family members against one another. Enemies will arise within our own household. Sons against father, daughter against mother-in-law. We hear about families set against one another today and it sounds harsh, but we also know it is not a farfetched scene. When Jesus’ followers heard this, they also were not shocked by the idea that families would be split. It was common knowledge among the Jewish community that when the day of the Lord comes families would be divided in how they react. They expected this. Prophets, like Micah and Isaiah, had warned them this is how it would play out. They understood that God would need to be the priority in one’s life, set higher than family ties, to make it out of the battle on the winning side. Not that these fights happen in our families…no, we have all seen it and been a part of it. It’s what families do. This does not mean there is love lost between us though. Jesus is not asking us to neglect anyone, simply to set our priorities correctly. God above anyone else. We can still love our family deeply even through great disagreement. These prophecies about families being split on the Lord’s Day is what Jesus is affirming in this message. The way to keep our bearing through the battle is to have a strong relationship with God, stronger than any other relationship. Knowing what God asks of us and what God requires will help us when the people around us think our way of seeing the world is off. People will disagree with the vison, but if we can stop to ask, “Is this the path God is leading us on?” then we will always find the right way forward. Jesus says he has brought a sword for this battle. When Paul tells us to put on the armor of God the sword is the word of God. It is the word that helps us have the top-notch relationship with God. It helps us get to know what God’s vision for the world is. It helps us see the vision we are supposed to devote our lives to making a reality. With the word in hand, we can check what we are fighting for against scripture. Does this path seek justice? Does this path love mercy? Does this path allow me to walk humbly? Does this path love “love” and hate “hate?” The answers we get from the Word are the ones we are to follow, regardless of family dissent. This is not a small task, for sure. Jesus is saying we need to know God better than we know our spouses, children, and parents. To stay true to what God calls us to requires swords, it requires sacrifice, it requires trust, it requires extensive discomfort to the point of carrying our own cross, to the point of losing the life others run after to gain our life in the kingdom. No wonder Jesus has to make this point about priorities. It is so much easier to follow the people around us than it is to follow God, because it is easier to build relationships with people and easier to go with their view of the world. We need to be reminded who we serve, reminded who we have committed our lives to follow. One might ask at this point, what happened to honoring our father and mother? Again, Jesus is not asking us to cut ties with anyone. There is, however, a difference between honoring someone and agreeing with them. I think Moses does this very well in our first lesson. Moses has debated with Pharaoh. He has gone back multiple times to argue for the people. Every time Pharaoh has sharpened his argument and demanded more proof, and every time God helps Moses meet those demands. In the exchange we read today, Moses has done all he can to get through to Pharaoh and has endured enough. He has to set a strong boundary to keep God’s vision alive and to keep himself on the path forward. He does this by engaging good boundaries and clearly knowing the difference between rude behavior, mean behavior, and bullying behavior. When Moses goes to Pharaoh this time, the leader of Egypt starts by agreeing to let the people go out into the wilderness to worship their God, but their livestock need to stay behind. This is rude behavior. It is offensive to Moses because it denies a true worship experience for the people. Moses stays calm and explains to Pharaoh that they will need to sacrifice some of the livestock, and they won’t know which ones or how many until God reveals the sacrifice to them during the time of worship. Moses gives Pharaoh the benefit of the doubt and offers a correction for the rude behavior. Instead of learning and understanding, Pharaoh revokes his good will and lashes out at Moses. This is mean behavior. Pharaoh knows better but refuses to change the offer. He intentionally offends Moses and refuses to change his rude behavior once educated. In fact, because this behavior is in line with a pattern of repeated aggressiveness towards Moses we have crossed into bullying territory. This is it for Moses. He sets a firm boundary. He will not be back to talk to Pharaoh, he will not see his face again. He will not be treated like this anymore. Moses was willing to correct rude behavior and forgive someone willing to change their ways. Moses was willing to endure the mean attacks, but the minute Moses connected the dots and saw the pattern of aggression, he was out. He would not endure a bully. Knowing the difference between rude, mean, and bullying behavior will help us set boundaries. Knowing what we are willing to put up with to move God’s vision forward with help us navigate disagreement and conflict in a loving and honorable way. Now most of our arguments will come over a difference of opinion. This comic shows what a difference of opinion is. Neither person is wrong. They just have a different perspective. A good conversation will ask questions of each other and maybe even get a chance to change places and see from the other person’s view. They may think differently in the end or they may not, but at least they tried to see the world a different way. Now if I had said, “That’s wrong, how could you think that way?” that would have been rude of me. If I had gone on social media and told the world the Cindy doesn’t know her numbers, that would be mean. And if I repeatedly brought up the conversation in a mocking way or aggressively called Cindy names that would be bullying. Rude, mean, and bullying are important distinctions for us to make when we engage in a conversation over a difference of opinion. Rude is when someone accidentally says something that hurts our feelings. The statement or action is not made with intention to hurt. It often comes from a place of simply not knowing how the words or actions will be felt. When someone is rude it usually only takes an honest response to correct the behavior. For example, I use the word crazy a lot. But recently a friend told me that word holds a lot of pain because she had been called crazy because of a mental illness she has. I apologized and asked her if she wanted to share her story with me. And now I’m working to be better. I still slip up a lot, but I now can hear myself when I say it and correct myself with a more descriptive word. Mean is when someone intentionally says or does something to hurt another. There is active aggression when someone is mean. Depending on the level of meanness, we may be able to help the other person become kinder or we may need to set up a boundary to protect ourselves. We can say I am willing to be called this or that and offer an honest response about how that hurts me…twice. After that I am going to leave the conversation because it is clear the person is not ready to hear my feelings. Or we can set a boundary of I’m willing to withstand verbal attacks to help someone see the world another way, but if it turns physically violent, I will leave. Setting boundaries like this before we get into a discussion helps us know our limits when we get to them. We don’t have to process in the moment and can leave the minute we want to. Bullying is a repeated aggressive and intentional attack on someone. Patterns of meanness is bullying behavior. Bullying sometimes will happen even when we have left the situation. When someone is bullied, they often hide because they feel like they did something to deserve the repeated attacks. Let’s just make the boundary now as a community that we will not tolerate our people suffering the attack of a bully alone. The best way to defend against a bully is to gather people around the victim. When I went through bystander training, they gave us the example of someone being yelled at on a subway for wearing a hijab. They taught us to simply go and sit with the person in the hijab. No need to talk to them or engage the bully. Simply putting our bodies closer to the victim can shift the dynamic enough for someone to stop. Understanding these three words, rude, mean and bullying can help us set boundaries around the disagreements we may have with loved ones. If someone violates a boundary, that is rude. We need to calmly inform them of our boundaries so they know better, like Moses did when he taught Pharaoh about the sacrifice situation during worship. If someone knows our boundary and still violates it, that is mean. Once Pharaoh learned the rules, he still ignored the needs of the people. If someone repeatedly violates the boundaries, like Pharaoh had throughout his discussions with Moses, that is bullying. That is when Moses set a boundary to not converse with the bully any longer. I would say it is a good boundary for us all to set. Bullies aren’t ready to listen anyway. There can be any number of boundaries we can set for ourselves. We can even sit down with family and discuss what the house rules will be. We can say we only talk about a controversial topic for 30 minutes then we change the subject. Or no politics on Christmas, bring it all on the fourth of July. Boundaries help us clear out the extra anxiety too. We don’t have to worry if a conversation will go too far, so we can be calmer in the moment, keeping our voices and body language more peaceful. If we have a different world view than loved ones, there are going to be arguments. We can’t avoid a topic completely. Boundaries help us have these conversations in a loving and respectful way. I wish Jesus had said it would be cupcakes and rainbows, but we got a sword. We also got a promise, that if we keep our relationship with God strong, we will change the world. Our relationship with God gives us what those trailblazing world changers did. It tells us who we are. They understood their purpose deeply, they were connected to the image of God within them. That thing, that Spirit, that God had placed in them, is what they were always faithful to. They knew who they were and what they stood for, and no matter what anyone said around them they stayed true to their calling. God is calling us too. Begging us to know God better than we know anyone else and promising when we do this, we will gain a life worth living. Let us pray for this to become our reality. July 19, 2020
The Rev. Dr. John Judson Listen Watch Print Version Exodus 6:1-9; Matthew 10:26-33 We had won the city championship and now we were headed to regionals. I was fifteen years old and was on top of the world. Our boys fast-pitch softball team…yes boys fast pitch softball…had won the Houston city sixteen and under championship. The only problem was that there was nothing beyond that for boys our age. It was then that the league asked if we wanted to jump up to the eighteen and under league and go into their regional tournament. Why not, we said, we were a great team and besides, as the team’s pitcher, I knew I could handle any batter I faced. The first game of the regionals went as I had predicted. Though it was close we eked out a win. The next day was the regional championship where we were to face the Houston city eighteen and under champions. The first three and a half innings went well. We were tied 4 to 4. Then something happened. It was as if we were suddenly playing t-ball with me setting the ball on a tee for our opponents to hit. Before we could get a single out, the game was called because of the mercy rule…the rule being that if after four innings another team is up by more than twenty runs, the game is over. I have to say that I was never so glad to have a game called in my life. I knew we were beaten and it was time to give up, give in, pack up and go home. I have been thinking about that game much of this week, and the reality that there are moments when we know that we have lost and it is better to just give up, rather than to keep fighting against the tide of defeat. I have been thinking about this because this is where I believe that Moses and the disciples found themselves at the end of last week’s passages. They found themselves in a hole, facing an unbeatable enemy and they should have hoped for the mercy rule. They should have seen that it was time to pack it in, give up and get on with life. Let’s begin with Moses. He had come proclaiming that this God of the burning bush was going to set the people of Israel free. All he had to do was have a conversation with Pharaoh and all would be fine. Yet his conversation not only did not free the people, but it made their lives worse. It only increased their workload and drove them deeper into despair. It only made the crushing burden of slavery even more painful. Maybe it was time for the mercy rule to be declared and Moses could go home. The disciples of Jesus were facing a similar situation. Their mission was two fold. First it was to proclaim in word and deed that the long awaited Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven was becoming a reality in the world in and through the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. Second, they were to heal God’s own people so that the Jews of Galilee and Judaea would become teammates in this endeavor. As we have discussed over the past several weeks, this Kingdom was not going to look like the Kingdom of Rome and its oppressive rule over the Jews, but a kingdom of justice, mercy and peace. Ultimately this kingdom would be a kingdom that turned the world up-side-down. While God’s Kingdom might sound wonderful to his followers, he reminds them that they would be hauled before both secular and religious rulers, beaten, hated and killed. If these predictions were true it might be better not to start the game, rather than wait for the mercy rule to kick in after the disciples suffered and died. Maybe it was time to give up and go back to fishing. So why weren’t these moments the end of the story? Why didn’t Moses give in to the power of Pharaoh and see that the game was over and go home? Why didn’t the disciples see the handwriting on the wall, and go back home and go fishing. Why didn’t they? They didn’t give up because they got the support they needed to persevere. Both Moses and the disciples got support from the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the support that gave them the courage to continue. Listen to God speaking to Moses. “I have heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves. And I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will free you from the bondage of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the that I swore to give to Abraham, Issac and Jacob.” Listen to Jesus speaking to his disciples. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the souls…are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs on your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.” They did not give up because God was with them. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, Peter, Paul and the disciples is a God who doesn’t believe in giving up on bringing in God’s Kingdom. There is no mercy rule as far as God is concerned. This God whom we worship doesn’t give up on people even when their spirits are broken. Instead God sends men and women like Moses and the disciples to proclaim this kingdom in the face of great odds; odds that would scare an ordinary person. And so we might assume then that when there are men, women and children created in the image of God, who are in need to freedom and justice, that the people who have been called by God’s Spirit would stand up for them, refuse to give in and work to make this Kingdom come on earth even as it is in heaven. Unfortunately this has not always been so. In fact the church, the called people of God, the followers of this kingdom bringing Jesus, are often the ones who oppress rather than liberate. It was the church that blessed the theory that white skin was superior to black skin and endorsed the enslavement of Africans and their descendants on this continent, resisting any and all calls for freedom. It has been and continues to be the church that refuses to allow women an equal place at pulpit and table, and argues against equal rights for women, saying men should rule and women should obey. It has been and continues to be the church that works to deny members of the LGBTQ community full inclusion in the church and in society, saying only heterosexual people should have full rights. It was and is the church that fought to insure the church would be the only organization that would be allowed to ignore the Americans with Disabilities act so that they would not have to make their facilities fully accessible to people with disabilities. No, the church, rather than being of support to those who are oppressed for the color of their skin, their gender, whom they love, and how they bodies and minds operate chose to ignore the call to justice and never even got in the game. But this is not who we are. We are different. I say we are different because we have committed ourselves to being a different kind of church. We have committed ourselves to being Everybody’s Church. We have committed ourselves to being a church in which we strive to be a faithful, open and inclusive community. We welcome the full participation of all people of any ability, gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other life circumstance. And by committing ourselves to that inclusion it means that we are committed to being a church of justice, that sees everyone as a child of God, treats everyone as a child of God and supports all of God’s children in their striving to fully access the benefits of this society. This means we are a church of justice not only for people inside these walls but for the world; out where you all are right now. For the church is the called out people of God, not the walled in people of God. I realize that the task of being the hands, feet and voice of God for freedom and justice in this world can seem overwhelming. We may want to give up and go home to our comfortable lives, seeing our faith as merely a spiritual exercise. But when we feel discouraged, I hope that not only will we realize that God is with us, calling us and supporting us in this endeavor, but that there are others who have come before us who can show us the way. And so this morning I want us to listen to the words of John Lewis, one of the two great leaders of the Civil Rights movement who died this week, the other being C.T.Vivian. I want to offer you three quotes from Mr. Lewis. He said, “We need someone who will stand up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian or Jews” and “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet” and finally “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime. Never ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary, trouble.” This is our mission and that is my challenge for you this morning, to ask how can I get in the game to be God’s voice and hands and feet to support those for whom God’s justice has been denied. |
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