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)
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.
-----
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.
thanks be to god.
2 comments:
Did you stir them up? :)
i don't know about me, but i hope the holy spirit did. she's good at that.
Post a Comment