jesus teaches us vulnerability: maundy thursday

the holy gospel according to john, the 13^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

now before the festival of the passover, jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the father. having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²the devil had already put it into the heart of judas son of simon iscariot to betray him. and during supper ³jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from god and was going to god, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶he came to simon peter, who said to him, “lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷jesus answered, “you do not know now what i am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸peter said to him, “you will never wash my feet.” jesus answered, “unless i wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹simon peter said to him, “lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰jesus said to him, “one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. and you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹for he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “not all of you are clean.”

¹²after he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “do you know what i have done to you? ¹³you call me teacher and lord—and you are right, for that is what i am. ¹⁴so if i, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵for i have set you an example, that you also should do as i have done to you. ¹⁶very truly, i tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

“now the son of man has been glorified, and god has been glorified in him. ³²if god has been glorified in him, god will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³little children, i am with you only a little longer. you will look for me; and as i said to the jews so now i say to you, ‘where i am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴i give you a new commandment, that you love one another. just as i have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

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i don’t know about you, but i don’t like feet.  yes, they are quite useful—they help me get around, i can put socks and shoes on them to help keep me warm, and they can help me count past ten,                        but really… i just don’t like them.

i feel like they’re always dirty.  they’re always so close to the dirt and grime of the ground—and that’s how i feel even when i have socks and shoes on to protect them, so i can hardly imagine being a disciple back then!  you spend all day walking around in sandals—no socks, no tennis, no paved streets or sidewalks.  your feet have got to be filthy!  definitely not something to show off to friends.

then jesus comes along and not only does he want to see and touch your feet, he wants to clean them!  it’s one thing to have a servant, who is lower than you, touch and clean your feet.  that’s the custom, and, after all, you don’t interact with them outside of that context.  they’re not in your peer group, so you don’t see them.

but jesus?!

not only do you regularly interact with him, he’s your rabbi!  he is your teacher and lord.  now, if he’s your rabbi, according to custom, you should be following him so closely that you step in everything he steps in, so he should already know what kind of dust covers your feet because it’s his dust. 

but what about judas, whose feet carry the dust of betrayal?  or peter, whose feet carry the dust of his impulsive actions and reactions and, as jesus knows, will soon carry the dust of denial?  or the other disciples who try to keep the children and the lepers away from jesus?  i’m willing to bet that jesus could tell a lot about a person by touching or cleaning their feet.

ultimately jesus is teaching us and the rest of his followers: love.  this whole story from foot washing to the greatest commandment is a story of love.  many people also think that jesus is teaching his disciples to be servants, and that’s part of it—part of what love is—but what i think he’s really trying to teach them is more of a prerequisite to love and service—something that has to happen before service can be genuine or love received.  

it’s something you can only learn by doing.  that is, vulnerability.  because love and service are vulnerable and how vulnerable is it             to have jesus cleanse the dirtiest part of you?  to clean off the dirt accumulated when you strayed off the path, away from jesus and the rest of the group?  to clean the cracks, calluses, and blisters accumulated from a life of living and walking in the dry climate of 1^st century palestine?

jesus teaches his disciples vulnerability by putting them in the position of being vulnerable.  it’s not an anything goes, outrageous vulnerability. 

jesus tempers both peter’s imbalanced desires: first his desire to be free from vulnerability as he refuses to have his feet washed and then his desire for extreme vulnerability as he wants all of himself to be washed.  jesus is teaching his followers not only appropriate vulnerability, but also a familiarity with and willingness to be vulnerable.

jesus teaches his followers vulnerability so that they can live differently in the world because it is through vulnerability that love can truly be felt.  jesus’ greatest command is that we love one another as jesus has loved us.  when jesus’ followers can be vulnerable, their connections with others can deepen and their love and service are more meaningful. 

they will be able to pass on their vulnerability and honor it as they interact with others who have been made vulnerable because of uncontrollable life circumstances.  those who are poor and marginalized have no choice in the vulnerability they feel, they are forced into vulnerability. 

yet jesus’ followers will know how to be vulnerable with them, to accompany them.  even if they don’t know what it’s like for the individuals they meet who are made vulnerable by others, they will know the gift and strength of being vulnerable together rather than alone.

jesus teaches them vulnerability with the same purpose that he teaches us vulnerability through communion.  the act of coming to receive communion is vulnerable.  we come before god and each other, beginning with confession of our sins—confession of the dust we carry on our feet and in our hearts that is not the dust of our rabbi, jesus.  we begin with vulnerability through confession and continue as we come to the Table. 

this vulnerability to come to the Table, declares to all those gathered that we need the nourishment and sustenance of jesus.  we come knowing our sins.  knowing the parts of ourselves that we think are the dirtiest or meanest or most sinful.  even our physical posture is vulnerable as we stop and kneel, lowering ourselves, and looking up, hands out, to receive communion.

i’ve been spending time with our young people as they prepare to receive communion and i continue to be amazed as they quickly grasp what it’s all about.  they know that god provides communion.  and when we’ve talked about who can come to the Table for communion, it took no time at all for the class to point out that you don’t have to be perfect to come for communion, because if we had to be perfect, then no one could come, no one could receive communion.  that’s what we say when we come to receive jesus at the Table.  we say that we are not perfect.  we are sinners and we need jesus.  we cannot do it on our own.

the kids of this congregation get it.  they get that we come to communion precisely because we are not perfect.  we come because we sin and even as we know that we are both sinner and saint, we trust god to be at work in communion, strengthening us and nourishing us not by bread alone, but by the very word of god. 

in that combination of god’s word proclaimed and bread and wine given we receive Grace—god’s love.  we are vulnerable and in our vulnerability god loves all of us, even down to our stinky feet, and gives us Grace.

we come to the Table clear that we need jesus and just like judas and peter and all the followers gathered around the table that night so long ago, we receive the bread and wine, Body and Blood            now,                         trusting that it will be enough to sustain us through our betrayals and denials, to get us through the pain and sorrow of the garden, the crucifixion, and the death, and safely to the other side.

knowing all that is to come, jesus nourishes us at the Table now.  jesus teaches us to be vulnerable now.  and jesus loves us now.  so that as we go out we can be vulnerable in love and service with others.

amen.

jesus loves you extravagantly: 5th sunday of lent

the holy gospel according to john, the 12^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

six days before the passover jesus came to bethany, the home of lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²there they gave a dinner for him. martha served, and lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴but judas iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵“why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷jesus said, “leave her alone. she bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

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jesus comes to the home of the ones he loves: lazarus, mary, and martha.  in the chapter before this in john, jesus raised lazarus from the dead, so it follows that mary, martha, and lazarus would want to have jesus over for dinner to express their gratitude for what he’s done for them.  gracious guest and loving friend that he is, jesus accepts and shows up with a few others for dinner.

as we will find again on maundy thursday, one of the customs when sitting down to a meal was footwashing—usually done by a servant.  in those days shoes were mere sandals and the mode of transportation was walking, so feet, got to be pretty dirty pretty quickly.  this means that jesus wouldn’t have been very surprised to have his feet washed, but when mary does it and even anoints his feet             with a perfume of pure nard and wipes it with her hair—that’s a big deal!  the perfume she had been saving for him cost a whole year’s salary!  that’s like cracking open a $30-100,000 bottle of wine for a guest!  talk about extravagant!

the thing about this extravagant gift is that it is far beyond anything i could imagine.  i would have to save for several years to even come close to having $10,000 to spend like that and that would be a pretty cheap perfume compared to mary’s!  but here mary is dumping it out on jesus’ feet. 

and sometimes i’m with judas questioning mary and dismissing her devotion, because how outrageous is her gift?!  couldn’t i have used that money for something else?  something better?  and surely that is precisely what i do.  i use the money for something else—for the gym, movies, traveling, student loans,                or i just save it for next year.

but mary and martha and lazarus know what jesus is up to.  they’ve gotten the message.  jesus raised lazarus from the dead after lazarus was well past dead.  up to three days of being dead back then and it could’ve been a mistake, but 4 days?? 

he was definitely dead             and yet jesus shows up and, true to what he said, ”the glory of god” was revealed as he called lazarus to “come out!”  the dead one was raised, and mary, martha and lazarus realized that jesus is not here to fight and destroy the roman occupying powers.  he is here to destroy the power of death!

and jesus takes mary’s extravagant gift in stride.  he knows what it’s for.  he knows what’s coming and so do we.  when mary anoints his feet it’s not just because he raised her brother from deep death, it’s because this is the beginning of jesus’ death.  jesus is being anointed for his own burial.  jesus is on his way to reveal once again the glory of god, only this time it will be                         on the cross.

mary has caught on and uses this moment, this special, intimate moment with loved ones in order to care for and support jesus in his mission.  she recognizes his power and is eager to honor him.  she knows the journey is to the cross.  it’s been clear since jesus raised lazarus and the chief priests and the pharisees began planning to kill him.

and here jesus again tells those gathered that his death is coming.  not only that, but it is upon him.  it is just 6 days before the passover, this is the last sabbath.  jesus will be betrayed, tortured, and crucified.  god’s glory will be revealed in the cross—in his refusal to come down off the cross. 

jesus endures death on a cross for you and for me because he knows the power of death over us.  he knows the sickness, pain, and hurt; the anger, violence, and death; the loneliness, the addiction, and the grief we face each week.  jesus knows that every day we live in a world where expectations are unrealistically high, where bullies reign at work and at school, time is scarce, and it feels like there is never enough of anything.

[pause]

death is integral to our lives and to what happens in bethany, but it is not central to it.  even as mary anointing jesus’ feet points towards maundy thursday, the betrayal, and the crucifixion and death, it centers on jesus. 

in all of this it points toward jesus and the love that leads him into washing his own disciples’ feet, sharing that last supper with them.  enduring betrayal, torture, and death, and moving through death to new life, bringing all of us             with him.  it is love that brought jesus to earth and love that sustains him and that love is no ordinary love, but extravagant love. 

that is his gift for each of us.

jesus comes in with the most extravagant gift of them all.  he comes to die on the cross, pouring out his life for us, a gift worth more than an entire lifetime’s wages.  he is faithful even to death so that death will not have the final say.

mary and jesus’ extravagant gifts point to god’s glory.  they are not idle gifts.  they mean that the time we spend with jesus does make a difference.  we are a community that gathers around the Word and the Sacraments.  worship each week is a big deal.  it is a priority.  we need worship.  we need jesus to get us through the rest of the week.  and every sunday he nourishes us in Bread and Wine—Body and Blood so that we can go back into the world for one more week.  and that is what we do together here in this place.

we bring ourselves and our gifts to this place.  we contribute to worship and to immanuel not because it is the only way our money and our talents will do good, but because, like mary, martha, and lazarus, we know that god is up to something, that jesus is at work. 

we gather here to receive god’s grace and extravagant love and in our joyful response to god’s abundance, we offer ourselves, our lives, and our offerings, as signs of jesus’ extravagant love for us.  we bring our gifts because we know how valuable jesus’ gift of extravagant love is.

when we come together for worship, jesus’ extravagant love is poured out.  it is the thing that gives us the grace and the love to pour back into the world.  jesus’ love comes to us in wine and bread so that we can turn outward and pour that love into others.

we all can, and do, do it.  it’s in how we live our lives.  how we care for co-workers, how we care for creation or our neighbor or families.  how we give our gifts.  how much the poor truly are together with us always—in community, in worship, in life.

the way we worship together, receiving the most extravagant gift of love each week, prepares us for a world where death is all around.  but we know the gift of love and we know that death does not have the final word.  we know a god, in jesus christ, who conquers death and brings us all to new life.  not once, but constantly.  jesus gives the most extravagant of gifts, claiming us as beloved children of god, and feeding us with his Body and Blood.

thanks be to god!

moving for medicaid in missouri

tuesday, i headed to the capitol.  no, not dc.  jefferson city, or jeff city for short.  i was part of 200 faith folk across missouri (not to mention other organizing partners) to descend on the capitol with missouri faith voices and cco to talk to legislators and the governor about medicaid expansion.

on our way to jeff city (woohoo medicaid expansion!!)

right now missouri pays 40% of the funds for medicaid and the federal government pays 60%.  missouri also only gives medicaid to those who earn a mere 20% of poverty level wages.  with medicaid expansion, the federal government would pay 100% of the funds for medicaid for three years, then slowly work down to 90% (which is still more than 60%) and hard working missourians who earn 138% of poverty level wages (those entering workforces, making about $12/hour) would qualify for medicaid.  this means missouri would get money from the federal government pumped into the state (creating jobs) and would create incentives to begin work in missouri and would help missourians stay healthier.

if missouri does not pass medicaid expansion, not only does the government not fund 100% of medicaid, it doesn't fund any.  medicaid would then only be funded by missouri, so funding would drop by 60%, therefore covering even fewer people than it covers now (which is already really small) and this would result in hospitals closing due to lack of funding.

big deal, right?  when jesus says he was sick and we did or did not visit him, this counts.  cutting medicaid prevents jesus from being able to go to the doctor to keep from getting sick!  as a baptized child of god, and as someone who has insurance and sees the benefits of it for my medical bills, i understand fair and equal access to health care as a necessary right.  we are each claimed as god's own children in baptism and if my brother (or theoretical sister) is sick, i will take him (or her) to the doctor if i have to.  dying from preventable and curable diseases is not right and no child of god should have to go through that.

that's why i was at the capitol today meeting with legislators (who will be back in their districts for 10 days beginning thursday if you want to tell them why you care about medicaid expansion) and governor nixon.  medicaid expansion is the right thing to do.

god keeps working on us: 3rd sunday of lent

the holy gospel according to luke, the 13^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

13At that very time

there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans

whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way

they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?

³No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,            

you will all perish as they did.

⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,            

you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.

⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘See here!

For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,

and still I find none.

Cut it down!

Why should it be wasting the soil?’

⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.

⁹If it bears fruit next year,

well and good;

but if not,

you can cut it down.’”

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

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some people in the crowd come to jesus with an age-old struggle about evil and sin in the world.

the jews are living under occupation.  pilate continues to rule violently over them, working hard to quash even the smallest sign of rebellion.  violence and oppression are daily realities. 

the cross and crucifixion are political instruments of torture and punishment and won’t be made into religious symbols until well after their political purpose has ended. 

life is uncertain. so it makes sense that the jews want to find a way

to make meaning out of,

to place blame for,

and to be excused from

the violence and the oppression around them.

and the issues they raise are important.

how responsible are individuals for the bad stuff that happens to them?  does god punish us?  why are these bad things happening?

were the galileans killed because they were such bad sinners?  were those killed by the tower of siloam really worse offenders? 

are the victims of violence in neighborhoods east of troost worse sinners?  are the people of haiti or joplin greater offenders? 

was she asking for it?  did he deserve it? 

i have to admit, i like to find out who is responsible for bad things, for mistakes, for hurt, so that i know where to place blame… so that i don’t have to worry about being blamed or being hurt.  it’s pretty easy to look at the violence in the world around us and blame the victim.  if it’s the victim’s fault, it means i’m safe.  if he deserved it or she was asking for it, then it couldn’t possibly happen to me, because i wouldn’t ask for it, i’m not that bad.                          i’m nice!  i’m a good person.                       

it makes us feel safer because: we’re not like them.  we’re not so sinful.

but when asked if “they”—those other people—were worse sinners, twice jesus says,

“no,             i tell you;                        

but unless you repent, you will all perish.” 

just like today, sin was not simply an individual thing—an issue of personal piety.  systems were set up to reinforce inequalities.

today racism and sexism are two forms of sin that have become institutionalized.  that is, they’ve been knitted into the fabric of our society in such a way that many people, especially those who seem to benefit from them, don’t even notice.            

it’s how it’s always been.

perhaps the jews had become so accustomed to the occupation, that they forgot that it was a reason for killing and death, like some who think the children of god east of troost are to blame for the violence they suffer.  they forgot.  and we forget that the pain and violence experienced so often by women and people of color are part of a larger system that we might not notice, but that affects us all.

institutionalized sins, like racism and sexism are all around us.  they infect our economic and social systems, our entertainment and our politics.  they are an epidemic that continues to spread as it goes unnoticed or, unacknowledged. 

they have become embedded in our culture in such a way that many of us who are oppressed can feel it, even if we can’t articulate what it is we’re feeling or struggling with, and many of us who are oppressors don’t even notice it.  and so often many of us can find ourselves in the role of both oppressed and oppressor with conflicting feelings and emotions as ever-present struggles inside of us.

yet jesus knows what we need.

repent.

he says. 

“unless you repent, you will all perish.”

it is not their fault, but we as a culture must repent for the role we all play in continuing and upholding institutionalized sin.  we are connected.  each of us, one to another.  sexism and racism don’t just harm women and people of color, they harm us all.  it is not good for our souls to be put, for arbitrary reasons, above or below another person; to be put on a pedestal and pressured to maintain that position at all costs keeps us from being in relationship with others.

as does being constantly knocked down from any pedestal. 

these systems of oppression can prevent us from recognizing everyone as children of god, worthy—always—of god’s love and grace.

repentance is key.

repent, turning around—re-turning—to the goodness of god’s way.  to the recognition of each other as beloved children of god.  in calling the crowd and, by extension, us to repentance, jesus brings us back also to the cry we heard by the river jordan.  as john was baptizing and proclaiming a baptism of repentance, he told the crowd gathered then, “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

jesus knows the difficulty we face.  he knows what it takes to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”  that’s why he tells the parable.

because the thing about that fig tree is that on its own in the vineyard, with no second chances—no grace—that fig tree would be chopped down.  and if we are that fig tree.  we cannot, by our own power, put an end to systems of oppression.

but we have a god who never gives up. 

a god who is bigger than sexism and racism and all the powers of evil.

every time we repent, we recall our baptisms:

we get to again renounce racism, sexism, and all the forces that defy god. 

we get to renounce these systems of oppression—the powers of this world—that rebel against god. 

and we get to renounce the ways of sin that draw us from god. 

and god comes to us again and again and again, as the gardener; cultivating the ground, spreading manure, nourishing us that we might bear fruit.  we cannot and do not do it ourselves.  only god can.  and god chooses to do it through us.

god nurtures us into bearing fruits like immanuel’s involvement in the struggle to level the economic playing field by working to raise the minimum wage and cap interest rates on payday loans, both of which would positively impact primarily women and people of color, those most likely to live in poverty.

god is working in us to bear fruits worthy of repentance in involvement to reduce gun violence as part of the movement to change our culture of violence.  reducing gun violence would positively impact us all and especially those most likely to be victims of gun violence:  african american youth and women who are, or could become victims of domestic violence.

god works through us as we repent, re-turning to god to bear fruits worthy of repentance.  god works through us as we advocate to expand medicaid coverage for those without means to afford health care on their own, giving those who are more likely to live in poverty the help they need.

there is so much that god can and does do through us as we repent,

renouncing racism, sexism, and all the systems of oppression at work in the world.  and god is at work in our repentance.             

always forgiving                                    

and always working to nourish us

so that the fruit we bear may be fruits worthy of repentance.

repent.  re-turn to god.  for in god there is life.  and we can trust that god will always work for one more year, one more chance—more time to work with us, to feed us [table], to water us [font], to help us bear fruits worthy of repentance.

thanks be to god!