god's just beginning: 3rd after epiphany

today i had the honor of preaching at our sister congregation as they celebrated reconciling in christ sunday.

the first reading was jonah 3:1-5, 10
the second reading was 1 corinthians 7:29-31

the holy gospel according to mark (1:14-20)

¹⁴Now after John was arrested,

       Jesus came to Galilee,

              proclaiming the good news of God,

              ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled,

                     and the kingdom of God has come near;

                            repent,

                            and believe in the good news.”

       ¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee,

              he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—

                     for they were fishermen.

              ¹⁷And Jesus said to them,

                     “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

              ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

       ¹⁹As he went a little farther,

              he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John,

                     who were in their boat mending the nets.

              ²⁰Immediately he called them;

                     and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men,

                     and followed him.

the gospel of the lord.

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it is good to be with you all today as you celebrate being a reconciling in christ congregation and the ways that you publicly and clearly welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions.  as i am here and pastor steve is at christ the king, i also bring you greetings from your mission partner, christ the king lutheran church in south jordan.

now i have to admit, when i first looked at the texts for today, i thought to myself, “well this just doesn’t fit!”  everything about these texts seems to say “hurry up!”  god is on jonah’s case again about proclaiming god’s message to the ninevites, the ninevites hurry up and repent upon hearing jonah’s great and elaborate 8-word sermon, paul encourages the church in corinth to hurry up and act like god’s reign is here because “the present form of this world is passing away.”  and jesus calls his disciples and “immediately they left their nets and followed him” and he saw more and “immediately he called them.”

everything is so quick and so short!  sadly, i’m not quite as good as jonah, so my sermon will be a bit more than 8 words long.  what struck me most, though, is that nothing in the church ever seems to happen “immediately” or even very quickly, especially not when it comes to becoming a reconciling in christ congregation and making important decisions about the gospel and welcoming others.

but then i started to think about it some more and i realized that nobody’s asking or requiring that people complete a large or complicated task—like crafting and adopting a more expansive welcome statement—quickly or immediately.  

the ninevites are quick to repent, but then they still have work to do as they begin to live in a new way.  the disciples whom jesus calls immediately join him, but that is just the beginning of their journey.  the texts are all about starting!  starting to follow jesus, starting to live a new way, and starting to know god.

i have a friend who posted on facebook this past tuesday the following question: “now that mlk day is over, what are you going to do today, and tomorrow, and the next day, to end racism?”  mlk day is important.  it is indeed good and right to celebrate the work, the call, and the commitment of rev. dr. martin luther king, jr. and the leaders of the civil rights movement, but it’s also not enough.

racism still abounds in this country.  in 2010, people of color’s income was 65.5% of the average income of white people.[1]  african americans and hispanics made up about one quarter of the us population, but as of 2008 they made up 58% of all prisoners in the united states. 

and before you assume that they’re just more criminal, african americans are 12% of the total population of drug users, 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense.[2]  in 2010 ¾ of white people owned homes while only ½ of people of color did,[3] to name just a few examples. 

there is still work to be done and there will be work to be done even decades from now, but it is not fast work.  like water dripping on a rock or running down a mountainside, change comes, but slowly.  as the water trickles, it builds and builds until before we know it, it’s a rushing river, carving a valley in the side of the mountain, cutting through and crashing into boulders and rocks in its way.  yet even in the slowness of change, we still hear words to hurry.

the speed and hurry are not necessarily for the work of change, which takes planning and commitment.  the hurry is to begin, because it’s in beginning that the first trickle of water begins to drip, the rivers will come, as long as we can get the trickle of snowmelt each spring to begin, then we too will join the flow.

and you all have done this.  not only have you begun, but you’ve even got a nice creek going!  you’ve done the work to adopt a welcoming statement that includes gender identity and sexual orientation as well as socio-economic and marital status, age, race, and physical and mental capacities!  you even have gender-neutral bathrooms! 

you are a reconciling in christ congregation.  one of my favorite things about that label is that it’s not “reconciled,” which is in the past tense; it’s “reconciling.”  it’s an ongoing thing!  y’all have committed together to talk to each other, to be ok with disagreeing, so long as you keep coming back to the table, keep talking. 

that’s what becoming a reconciling in christ congregation is about.  it’s about the ongoing work of welcome, of inclusion and support, and of justice.  deciding to become a reconciling in christ congregations means hearing god’s summons to follow god and to keep walking in faith where god leads.

being a reconciling in christ congregation means that you get to care about the whole world.  you get to work to ratify the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, remembering those whose lives have been taken or forever altered by nuclear weapons.  you get to work on your welcome as a congregation and to support inclusive and affirming ministries, to work for racial justice and racial equity.  you get to do this because in order to welcome all people, they have to be able to get in the door.  they can’t be blocked from coming by health, by financial instability, by prison or unemployment.

y’all have begun this journey together, through prayer, conversation, and lots of discernment.  now is a time to celebrate the work you have done together and the commitment you have made.  and yet there is always still more work to be done.  there are still children of god who don’t know that god loves them just as god makes them or, if they know that much, don’t know that there are churches like zion and denominations like the elca that believe that as well.

there are still lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pastors, pastors of color, and pastors with disabilities who wait far too long to receive a call to a congregation or ministry setting.  there is still more work to be done.  the river has not yet finished running its course.

but the joy of the work is that god is there.  god is in the midst of the work of reconciliation, the work of justice and peace.  if, as rev. dr. martin luther king, jr said, “power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love,”[4] then our work for justice is also our work for love.

at christ the king we’ve been doing a class called lutheranism 101 and this last week was all about grace.  we talked about the joy and freedom of trusting that we can’t earn (or lose) salvation, or god’s love, through our own actions or good works.  god already loves each of us unconditionally.  this means that the good work we do—spreading love and justice in the world—is done in response and in thanksgiving for the love made known to us through jesus the christ. 

our actions are the work of the holy spirit.  she empowers us to enact god’s love in the world.  the holy spirit is the force of love by which we live and the source of strength for our work of love, justice, and welcome.  the holy spirit keeps the river flowing, washing us in our own baptismal waters.  she keeps the work going, just as god’s love always flows to each of us, and out into the world.

thanks be to god.

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[1] http://inequality.org/racial-inequality/

[2] http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

[3] http://inequality.org/racial-inequality/

[4] From MLK’s address to SCLC 16 August 1967, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

god calls us TO things: 2nd after epiphany

the other scripture, which i referenced, for today is:

the first reading is 1 samuel 3:1-20

the psalm is psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

the second reading is 1 corinthians 6:12-20

the holy gospel according to john (1:43-51)

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

       He found Philip and said to him,

              “Follow me.”

                     ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida,

                            the city of Andrew and Peter.

       ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him,

              “We have found him about whom Moses

                     in the law and also the prophets

                            wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

       ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him,

              “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

       Philip said to him,

              “Come and see.”

       ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him,

              he said of him,

                     “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

              ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him,

                     “Where did you get to know me?”

              Jesus answered,

                     “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

              ⁴⁹Nathanael replied,

                     “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!

                            You are the King of Israel!”

              ⁵⁰Jesus answered,

                     “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?

                            You will see greater things than these.”

                     ⁵¹And he said to him,

                            “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened

                                   and the angels of God ascending and descending

                                          upon the Son of Man.”

the gospel of the lord.

 -----

last week for baptism of our lord sunday we talked together about our baptisms.  we shared stories of god claiming us as beloved, of being dunked, or fully immersed, in tubs of water, and of having water poured, or sprinkled, on our foreheads.

this week we hear of god’s call to samuel and jesus’ call to his first disciples in john.  we hear of a god who creates our inmost parts, who knows us profoundly.  and yet we live in a time where we resonate with samuel as “the word of the lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” 

in fact, i think back to harold camping, who predicted the end of the world a few times a couple of years ago, and wonder if we would even recognize god calling us or if we too would run to answer someone else.  would we perceive god calling someone else as eli eventually does with samuel or would we call the person crazy and suggest a good therapist for them?

many times, our discussions even revolve around who god can or cannot call rather than the more relevant question of to what does god call?  what is god calling us to?  when god claims us in baptism, god also calls us.  god makes a covenant with us, promising to love us unconditionally as we, or those sponsoring us, promise to “live among god’s faithful people, to hear the word of god and share in the lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of god in christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”  god claims us as beloved and calls us into the world.

it is not an easy call, which is why when we commit to it we say “i do and i ask god to help and guide me.”  and we promise to support and pray for each other as we go.  god calls us in our baptism.  god calls us into the world, to be a force of love in the world.  god gives us the gift of vocation—ways to live god’s love out in service to others.

in seminary i took a class called the theology of martin luther king, jr.  one of dr. king’s sermons that we read was “why jesus called a man a fool.”  in it king recalls one of his moments of call and commitment to god’s work.  he had been receiving threats and nasty phone calls from white folks who were upset that they were trying to desegregate the buses in montgomery.   

usually he would let the insults and phone calls just roll off his back, but this one night around midnight he received a nasty phone call threatening himself and his family that stuck with him.  after the call, like samuel upon hearing the news of what god was planning to do to eli’s household, king just couldn’t get back to sleep.  so he went down to the kitchen for some coffee.

while waiting for the coffee to heat up, king got to thinking, which led to worrying.  he began to worry about the danger his family was in with these threats over the montgomery bus boycott.  as he was worrying, king recalls, “something said to me, you can’t call on daddy now, he’s up in atlanta a hundred and seventy-five miles away. you can’t even call on mama now. you’ve got to call on that something in that person that your daddy used to tell you about. that power that can make a way out of no way. and i discovered then that religion had to become real to me and i had to know god for myself.”  so king began to pray.  he prayed and he confessed his insecurities, his doubts, and his worries to god.  he confessed his struggles.

and then, king says of that experience, “and it seemed at that moment that i could hear an inner voice saying to me, ‘martin luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for truth. and lo i will be with you, even until the end of the world.’”  king continues, “and i’ll tell you, i’ve seen the lightning flash. i’ve heard the thunder roll. i felt sin- breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. but i heard the voice of jesus saying still to fight on. he promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. no, never alone. ”[1]

in the time of dr. king, when the word of the lord was rare, a woman named rosa and a man named martin listened in their struggle to the voice of god.  the voice of the almighty telling them to stay put, to persevere, that our god is a god of justice.  the voice of god did not say it would be easy and did not say they’d make it out with their lives, but jesus did promise to be with them.  telling them that the beloved community is not just a dream, but it is the reign of god and jesus promises to be with them, enacting the reign of god, until the end of the world.

just as in king’s day, when people were judged by where they’re from or the color of their skin, as is too often true even today, nathanael voices his concern in john, his prejudice about jesus being a nazarene, asking “can anything good come from nazareth?”  he is honest with his doubts and feelings and in his honesty, jesus finds a disciple.  jesus calls philip, nathanael, andrew, and peter.  he even announces nathanael as “truly an israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 

nathanael’s prejudice doesn’t stop nathanael from becoming a disciple.  instead, because of his honesty about this sin, inherited by a culture that discriminated against nazarenes, jesus recognizes him and calls him.  jesus truly knows nathanael before he calls him, just as the psalmist tells us that god “formed our inward parts; god knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.”  god knew us and dr. king, samuel and nathanael, before we were born and god calls us to:         discipleship.

god claims us in baptism and calls us into service.  god unites us to christ in baptism; making us one spirit with him and giving our bodies, our beings, purpose.

god was calling martin luther king, jr.’s body and the body of christ at dexter avenue baptist church during the civil rights movement.  martin luther king, jr. found the purpose to which god was calling those members of the body of christ and he worked towards that purpose, even risking his own life.  and god is calling our bodies to the work of ministry; to the work of healing as health care professionals, to service as social workers and colleagues, to ministry through words and presence, to compassion, care, and generosity. 

in our baptism we join the priesthood of all believers.  as part of the body of christ, god gives us all a vocation—a place and way to be a force for love and for good in the world.  god calls us to use our passion, our skills, our time, energy, and resources in love for the sake of the world.

god is calling the body of christ here at christ the king into the world, into our community, to feed the hungry and care for those in need.

in lent this year we will be exploring together how god is calling us into the community.  at our midweek services we will be learning about and helping community organizations as we discern how we might partner with them.  together we will discern where and how god is calling us, the body of christ at christ the king, into the world.

god’s work, our hands is not just the elca’s motto, it’s how god works in the world.  it’s how god worked through samuel, through nathanael and the other disciples, through martin luther king, jr. and the civil rights movement, and through us today.  god claims us in baptism and calls us into the world in service and love.

thanks be to god.

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[1] These quotes are from http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/why_jesus_called_a_man_a_fool/

the word adopts us and our flesh: christmas 2

the first reading today was jeremiah 31:7-14

the second reading today was ephesians 1:3-14

the holy gospel according to john (1:1-18)

In the beginning was the Word,

       and the Word was with God,

       and the Word was God.

              ²The Word was in the beginning with God.

       ³All things came into being through the Word,

              without whom not one thing came into being.

              What has come into being ⁴in the Word was life,

                     and the life was the light of all people.

⁵The light shines in the darkness,

       and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God,

       whose name was John.

              ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light,

                     so that all might believe through him.

       ⁸He himself was not the light,

              but he came to testify to the light.

⁹The true light,

       which enlightens everyone,

              was coming into the world.

¹⁰The light was in the world,

       and the world came into being through him;

              yet the world did not know him.

¹¹He came to what was his own,

       and his own people did not accept him.

              ¹²But to all who received him,

                     who believed in his name,

                            he gave power to become children of God,

                                   ¹³who were born,

                                          not of blood

                                          or of the will of the flesh

                                          or of the will of man,

                                                 but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

       and we have seen his glory,

              the glory as of a father’s only son,

                     full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out,

       “This was the one of whom I said,

              ‘He who comes after me

                     ranks ahead of me

                            because he was before me.’”)

¹⁶From his fullness we have all received,

       grace upon grace.

¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses;

       grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

              ¹⁸No one has ever seen God.

                     It is God the only Son,

                            who is close to the Father’s heart,

                                   who has made God known.

the gospel of the lord.

-----

the word, the wisdom of god, there for the birth of all creation.  there since the dawn of time.  the word who is the light—the first spark in the darkness, the light of the big bang, the light of the sun by day and the stars and moon by night.  the light shining in the darkness, sparking the fire of faith, igniting our journeys.  the light that comes into the world.  the word become flesh in the world to live among us.

that word comes to us for relationship, for salvation.  jeremiah tells of the lord’s plans for redemption for israel.  the hebrew understanding of redemption is what a sibling might do when a person is unable to pay their debt.  literally buying back the debt of the person, buying them out of their indebtedness.  arresting the one who kills a sibling.  standing up to the bully picking on you on the playground, at school, or at work. 

god redeems israel.  god steps in and saves israel when the nation is without hope.  god becomes the best sibling any of us could ever have.  god redeems the israelites, bringing them all together back from exile.  as jeremiah says, “those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. ⁹with weeping they shall come, and with consolations i will lead them back,”

god brings the israelites back from exile together, caring for all along the way.  god clears a path that they might return together, without stumbling.  god redeems israel and goes even a step further, as paul states in ephesians.  god adopts us as children.  god knows us and loves us and chooses us.

and as the word adopts our form, becomes flesh, we are adopted into the family of god.   just as in baptism we are joined to the whole life, death, and resurrection of the word made flesh, our whole beings, body, mind, and spirit, are also adopted into the family of god. 

i personally have not adopted any children, but i have several friends who have.  they’ve adopted children for a variety of reasons, and they are frequently asked of their children, “are they yours, or are they adopted?”  the answer, which we receive in ephesians and in john is, of course: yes.

as lutherans, we understand deeply what adoption is.  when god adopts us in our baptism, god makes us god’s own—we are adopted, chosen.  we become god’s own—god’s children, heirs to the profound love, active always in the world.  god adopts us and we receive more siblings than we could imagine.  now, for some of you who have only good things to say about and fond memories of your siblings, this is pure good news.  

for those of you, like myself, who have had a few more ups and downs, maybe even more downs than ups, with your siblings, there might be a bit more hesitation at the news that you now have more siblings than you can count.  what exactly does it mean to be a part of the family of god?

it means that we are all connected, related.  as the word becomes flesh to live among us, the word also connects us to each other.  the word proclaims us each children of god.  the word proclaims us beloved.  siblings, heirs, and bestowers of god’s inheritance of love.

the comfort and gladness god gives in jeremiah is the comfort of family, by blood, by choice, and by adoption. 

this past week i got to celebrate days 5-10 of christmas with my family.  while we don’t always get along—we know each other’s buttons and how to push them—this trip back to colorado was a trip of comfort and gladness for me.

as we sat around the dinner table with family we were born into and family we had, over the years, chosen, my brother and i rejoiced to hear stories of our family—some of which we knew and others we had never heard before.  these stories, which took place before either of us were born, were stories of real people—stories with the good and the bad of real people, mistakes, triumphs, blunders, and all.  we sat around the table together and we listened to stories and we talked about life.  we created space to be vulnerable together, to have conversations that in other places would be impossible.  as family, we decided to trust each other with our lives, our truth, and our stories.

that is family.  the people at the table with us.  the people we share our meal with.  the people we come to for support, for trust, for vulnerability and hard conversations.  even sometimes the people that we disagree and argue with.  and also, the people we sit with, sharing stories—real stories of the good and the bad and the funny of life and of people.

and that            is church.  each week we gather around the table, for a feast set for us by god.  we sit together with family—family by blood, family by choice, and always family by adoption—and talk and listen and struggle together.  we sit with each other in our vulnerabilities, we have the hard conversations that are impossible in other parts of our lives, and we hear the stories. 

we hear of god redeeming the israelites from their exile—returning them from the forced removal they had experienced from their land.  we hear the stories of paul and the early church, figuring out what it meant to follow the word of god together in the face of persecution and death.  and more than any other, we hear and sing of the word of god, that “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was god. ²the word was in the beginning with god. ³all things came into being through the word, without whom not one thing came into being. what has come into being ⁴in the word was life, and the life was the light of all people.”

at church we hear that “¹⁷the law indeed was given through moses; grace and truth came through jesus christ.”  jesus christ, the word made flesh, light of the world, who took on our flesh.  became human, joining our humanness to celebrate the gift of bodies in relationship to each other.  it is the word of god who gathers us together around a font—water with word—grace upon grace—the presence of god among us.  the word of god, jesus christ, who teaches us to love god and each other, and to turn that love outward in service and outreach, toward a world in need of love. 

god is love and in the word of god, love comes to live among us, to be fully with, and one of, us.  the word of god, whose name is jesus the christ, the light of the world, comes to us, adopts us, and sets us on our journey in the family of god.

thanks be to god