predicando en español - latin@ ministry strategy for kc!!

esta semana, prediqué en español durante la misa de la iglesia episcopal de san pablo en kansas city, kansas.

this week, i preached in spanish during the spanish worship service at st. paul's episcopal in kansas city, kansas.

this was the first sermon i've done in spanish and it has been a long time in the coming for me.  last spring when i was talking with my supervisor about the then-upcoming internship, there was a mention of a latin@ ministry strategy with the episcopal diocese in kansas city.  i was intrigued, to say the least.  well, during lent we kicked off the strategy in full force with a special guest presenter and preacher, father albert cutié.  this has been followed up by weekly spanish eucharist services at st. paul's.

because i am not ordained, but have considerable proficiency in spanish, my supervisor and i have gotten into the rotation to tag-team the service about once a month.  today was the first time for me to preach.  while there are similarities in sermonizing in spanish and english, it is definitely different.  i cannot simply prepare a sermon and translate it to spanish and call it good.  they are different languages and the people who hear them come from distinct contexts as well. 

an additional difficulty for me is that not only do i know spanish and english, but i also know slovak and so if i am speaking in a conversation and am not really focused on the words i'm saying i can oftentimes accidentally slip in a slovak word when i'm intending to speak spanish.  this means that when i preach in spanish, i definitely need a full manuscript.

this is a part of my internship that i was really excited for at the beginning and although it has taken a bit of time to get up and running, i'm really excited that we are now in full swing and am already thinking about what it will mean to preach for pentecost in both a spanish-speaking and an english-speaking context.

i'm not including the manuscript for my sermon here, but if you'd like a copy, let me know and i'm happy to email it to you :)

jesus stays with us: bach cantata #6

the following is a manuscript from the homily i preached at the bach cantata vespers service tonight.  the cantata was cantata #6

a reading from luke.

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”

They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”

¹⁹He asked them, “What things?”

They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”

²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.  

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

the word of the lord.  thanks be to god.

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even as we are an easter people and are in the season of easter, good friday, the death of the lord and our friend, remains with us.  we live in a good friday world with the two disciples walking the road to emmaus. 

this week has been especially clear on the death and dark of night that surrounds us.  starting the week with the explosions at the boston marathon, another explosion at a fertilizer factory in west, texas, and these are in addition to the daily violence and death that riddles our city, and even some of our families.  not to mention situations of hunger and homelessness. 

we’re struggling with budget crises as individuals and as a country.  80-90% agreement on common sense gun legislation: and yet universal background checks still don’t pass in congress.  we work hard and stressful jobs, we work with crabby people, or we can’t find work.

all around us we resonate with disciples who are wrestling with good friday and the quickly falling evening.  we can feel evening falling in the setting sun and even in the descending notes of the cantata, but we’re not quite ready for the day to be over.  we’re not quite ready to be left alone.

something within us yearns for more and we hear ourselves beg with the disciples, “stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”  it is with a pleading tone that we hear this request at the start of the cantata to match the same tone with which the disciples ask jesus to stay.

as yet, they don’t know it’s jesus, and while their hearts may be burning, they still think it’s heartburn from lunch.  but there is something about this stranger walking with them, that pulls them in.  something about him that keeps them from letting him just walk away.

there is a mystery in this transitional, liminal time between day and night that pulls us in.  for the past 25 years we’ve been pulled in here to this place by the mystery of bach’s cantatas—his ability to bring these words to new life—to infuse each note so that we feel with the disciples the plea and mounting urgency for jesus to stay with us.

the story goes that christ is risen, yet there is still doubt and worry; grief and tragedy.  perhaps the mystery is actually that in the midst of the grief we face, we keep coming back.  something keeps pulling us in.  so we, as the disciples, urge him to stay—a gesture of middle eastern hospitality; and a plea from our hearts. 

there’s a reference in the book of hebrews about providing hospitality that you may actually be “entertaining angels unaware.”  it refers to sarah and abraham’s hospitality to the three angels of the lord in genesis, a well-known story to jews even back then.  i don’t think the first hearers of this story in luke could have heard it without remembering sarah and abraham and the angels and the gift they received—a beloved child—through the hospitality they provided.

and hospitality is holy.  providing for others, inviting them in, is sacred work, as is gathering in this place.  the notes of the cantata blend together to infuse us with the scene.  even martin luther, our namesake as lutherans, knew the value and power of music—keeping it intricately woven in worship.  and so we return for each cantata to the holy place that music holds in our lives and hearts.

and the disciples return to their home in emmaus and invite jesus to stay after the long journey.  in this moment of holy hospitality and fellowship at the Table, jesus breaks bread and in the breaking of bread, the disciples realize that they are with jesus—and he disappears.  they gather together as strangers, sharing in the journey and sharing in hospitality.

it is precisely there—in the hospitality and in the breaking of bread—that god in jesus is revealed to the disciples.  so it is today that in the gifts we share with others god is revealed.  in our hospitality, music, comfort, and food.  jesus is among us, unseen, yet felt and heard.  and perhaps it is precisely when we recognize jesus in the others around us that jesus disappears, leaving us able to see the other for who they are: a beloved child of god, the light of christ shining within.

all of this requires risk and vulnerability.  for all the disciples knew, jesus could have come into their home and robbed them of all they had.  yet they took the risk and said, “stay with us.”  they needed the gift of this stranger’s presence and so they pleaded, “stay with us.”  they provided nourishment and jesus broke the bread, revealing what had always been there: christ’s presence among them, just as christ is present among us, revealing the truth of god’s love for each one of us, stranger and friend—angels among us unaware.

proclaiming against racism and all the forces that defy god.

this past weekend i was in a place of sanctuary in many ways.  i was at the proclaim retreat.  it was a time to be with others both similar and different from myself.  we all share that up until 2009 the general (though not universal) policy and practice of the elca was that we not be ordained--especially if we were in a relationship.  as i was at the retreat, i realized a couple things.

1-we have come a long way as a church and i am proud of the cloud of witnesses around me, especially in proclaim.  without those who went before me, change wouldn't have happened.

2-even within our community we battle against sexism and heteronormativity.  much like women who internalize sexism, we all are affected by systems of oppression, whether we are oppressor or oppressed.

3-we know the margins, which means i have a responsibility as a white, able-bodied, english speaking person to do my best to be an ally to others.  one of my friends from seminary was with us and talked about racism and the conversation helped me remember that even though i can sometimes say things that are racist (or ableist), it is more important that i continue to work against racism and ableism and admit when i mess up than it is that i don't mess up.

these realizations came into sharp focus this week.  while heading to the airport to come back to kansas city, we found out about the boston marathon bombing and even without tv where i'm living, i got my fair share of the news throughout the week.  the trouble was that most of what i was finding out about was racism.  lots and lots of incidences of racism.

racism sucks.  this country is riddled with it.  i preached a sermon a while back and we had a baptism that sunday and one of the things i talked about in the sermon were the renunciations that we do when we bring someone to be baptized or affirm our own baptisms.  ever since text study at the beginning of february, i've been renouncing forces that defy god all the time.  in sermons, in scripture, with the presiding bishop.  everywhere, yet these forces that defy god--forces like racism--still persist. 

over and over again, we must renounce all the systems of oppression that rebel against god.  we, especially when we hold positions of power in those systems, must continuously renounce those systems that separate us from each other--that make us oppressed or oppressor.  we must choose another way.

this evening i caught a glimpse of that other way.  the second suspect has been captured.  most of the posts regarding him have been either relief that he was captured or (more importantly) prayers and requests for prayers for him.  because everyone is a beloved child of god.

so, i renounce racism, xenophobia, and the fear that our united states culture perpetuates.  maybe that is the first step to ending racism.  renouncing it.  may it be my next step and yours.

what we're up to in worship at immanuel

here we are on the other side of lent and holy week and what a time it has been!  we have walked with the dust of jesus on our foreheads.  we have journeyed through some of our most foundational stories of faith in the old testament, discerning what god provides and how we respond.  we have journeyed from cries of “hosanna!” through cries of “crucify him!”  we have waited and we have come together in the early dawn to the empty tomb with the women to find that “he is not here, but has risen.”

so we are here on the other side of easter, dusting off the dust of the tomb and looking up to find jesus resurrected and walking among us.  in the coming month the confirmation class will gather for a retreat.  we will explore the three days together and break bread as a group.

as we approached easter and as i recently went through my mid-year evaluations, i couldn’t help but look back on the past six months in preparation for the six to come.  as i have walked with immanuel and worshipped with immanuel, i have learned so much already.  this congregation has been a learning ground not only for worship leadership, but also for pastoral care and relationships. 

this congregation is committed to each other and to the greater metro-kansas city community.  their faith is evident in prayers and concern for those around them, in service with metro lutheran ministries, in worship, and in the way they live out their faith and their baptismal call in their lives.  

they are evidence for me of christ’s resurrection.  even in the midst of pain, sorrow, and death, they are life as they shine christ’s light and i am grateful to be surrounded by this cloud of witnesses for this year.

holy holy holy week

although i did preach the easter vigil, i did it without a manuscript--a first-person account of the resurrection from mary's perspective (according to the gospel of john), so i don't have a manuscript to post.  but i do have some holy week reflecting to share.

for as long as i can remember, i've worshiped on good friday.  this is mainly because i was the acolyte for my home congregation's tenebrae service of darkness which we did with the episcopal congregation.  then it became habit.  i came back during college for good friday and easter sunday.

this holy week i realized something about good friday and easter.  you see, i don't always like lent.  by the end of lent i am ready for it to be done.  i like my alleluias.  i like singing "this is the feast."  and i get a bit down during lent.  don't get me wrong, i think it's important, it's just not my favorite time of the church year.

what i realized about holy week, though, was twofold.  1-i need good friday.  2-i love easter.

i need the experience of good friday each year.  i need the time to be sad and to face the deep darkness of christ's death on the cross.  i need to sit with those feelings, those emotions, those thoughts.  i need that space to be intentionally created and good friday is the day that that happens.  it is the day--of the entire church year--that sadness and darkness and hopelessness are recognized and are felt communally.

i need good friday so that i can love easter.  alleluia!  christ is risen!!  joy comes to the world!  death is not the ultimate power!  god is more powerful than even death!  on good friday the powers of the world that we renounce during baptism do their worst to a god who has come to love us.  and on the third day, god wins.  god responds with more love than even death can handle.  god responds with resurrection.  i love easter.  the joy, the hope, the brightness of all the colors of the rainbow combining to make that perfect light.

i love easter.  it saves me.  easter is resurrection.  it is god's ultimate outpouring of love, which begins in the beginning of all creation and continues through jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection.

so, this week has been holy.  as is every week.  and its particular holiness comes from good friday and the power good friday has to make easter so much bigger and so much specialer. 

what about you?  which church holiday do you need?  which do you love?