God's love is who we are: 26th after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Luke (21:5-19)

⁵When some were speaking about the temple,

       how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God,

Jesus said,

       ⁶“As for these things that you see,

              the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another;

                     all will be thrown down.”
⁷They asked Jesus,

       “Teacher, when will this be,

       and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”

⁸And Jesus said,

       “Beware that you are not led astray;

              for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am the one!’

              and, ‘The time is near!’

                     Do not go after them.

⁹“When you hear of wars and insurrections,

       do not be terrified;

              for these things must take place first,

                     but the end will not follow immediately.”

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them,

       “Nation will rise against nation,

              and country against country;

       ¹¹there will be great earthquakes,

              and in various places famines and plagues;

                     and there will be dreadful portents

                            and great signs from heaven.

¹²“But before all this occurs,

       they will arrest you and persecute you;

       they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons,

       and you will be brought before rulers and governors because of my name.

              ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify.

                     ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;

                            ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom

                                   that none of your opponents will be able to withstand

                                          or contradict.

       ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and family,

              by relatives and friends;

                     and they will put some of you to death.

       ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name.

              ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish.

                     ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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No matter who would have won this week, we as a community of faith would have work to do.  Our country, and even our own community, is deeply divided.  The words of Jesus from today’s gospel paint a stark picture of the world and yet for many in this country, “dreadful portents” feels accurate this week or even this year. 

Throughout this election, those who are most vulnerable in our country have been used, tossed aside, or manipulated.  Poor and working class people of all races have been excluded in favor of a focus on the “middle class,” so many others have been explicitly degraded and villainized.

It is not a matter of being a democrat or a republican.  It is not a matter of voting a certain way.  No matter who you voted for or what your reasons for voting, the results of the presidential election tell those of us who are already more vulnerable that we don’t matter or that we matter less.  This is not because a certain “side” won or lost.  It’s deeper than that.

Muslims, immigrants, people of color, and lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, and queer folks have been taunted; in play grounds with “Build the wall!”, harassed and beaten up,             with hijabs, the headscarves some Muslim women wear as an expression of their faith, torn off                         on college campuses and in people’s own communities.  Women have been harassed on public transportation and at work. Graffiti and threatening notes have popped up everywhere. [1]

Not only that, usually the crisis text line has about 30-80 people working at one time to field all of the texts that they receive from people in crisis from anxiety, depression, and other causes.  Tuesday night, it took over 500 counselors at once to meet the demand.  This has continued to be the case across the board with suicide and crisis hotlines.

For many of us who voted, probably even the majority, the intended message was not this, but for those people who jumped on board with the fear and voted precisely because of the violent, racist, xenophobic rhetoric, they see the results as affirmation of their views.  They understand the results as a country that thinks whiteness is best and should be the only race allowed, where other religions are illegitimate, where people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ folks, and women don’t deserve full citizenship, where violence, harassment, and bullying is ok. 

Many now feel justified in acting on their bigotry and fear.  And many are responding to that out of their own justified fear and anger.

That has become the message of this week.

But Jesus says, “¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify.”

Because that—that hatred and fear—is not who we are as a community of faith.  Violence in any form is not who we are as a community of faith.

Jesus says “they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before rulers and governors because of my name….¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and family, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ”

Following Jesus is not easy.  It means taking risks, it means standing up to bullies on playgrounds, on the streets, and even in politics—from Republicans, Democrats, Third Parties, and Independents.

Today, tomorrow, and in the coming months, we will have the opportunity to testify.  What will your witness be? 

Yesterday we celebrated Carina’s ordination.  We celebrated this community of faith and the ways the Holy Spirit has worked through you all to encourage Carina and lift up her gifts for ministry and leadership. 

You have nurtured in her a faith that understands a neighbor’s pain as her own pain; that sees Christ’s suffering in those who suffer throughout the world.  You were the first ones to share with her about Jesus, to care about being in relationship with her, to encourage her call to ministry.  You embodied God’s love to your neighbors and to her.  Christ’s love has been carried in this community and Christ’s light has shined brightly through you.

In the coming months, we will again have the opportunity to testify to God’s love for Muslim children of God, for immigrant and refugee children of God, for children of God who have survived sexual assault, and for children of God with disabilities.

Not because you have to, but because of God’s love.  God loves immigrants, people living and working in poverty, Muslims, survivors, the vulnerable and the forgotten.  God loves you.  And God’s love is who we are as a community of faith—as beloved children of God ourselves.  God loves us so much that God feeds us in bread and wine; Christ’s own self, given in love for the sake of the whole world.  And through us, God also feeds others—pies, pasta, mole, cheese and crackers, and the nourishment of love, friendship, and support.

The Holy Spirit has been at work in this world since long before any of us were alive and since long before this election even began.  God claims each and every person as beloved and in our baptism, God calls us into the world as witnesses of God’s love—to smile and greet strangers who are really neighbors in the grocery store, to go out of our way when we’re in Rochester or LaCrosse to warmly greet women wearing hijabs, so that they know that we care about them and are safe people for them, to challenge ourselves and friends or neighbors when we think or they say something about “those people” whomever “those people” may be.

We live in a small town, filled with nice people, and it’s easy to think that we aren’t connected to the rest of what is going on in our country or the world.  Yet our interactions are bigger than Rushford and Peterson.  God makes them ripple outwards.  God’s love surrounds us and expands the impact of the love we show to others. 

May the Holy Spirit continue to make our witness ripple waves of love into the universe just as she has always done.

Amen.

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[1] If you need more examples, you can go to whyweareafraid.com

[2] Alex Darling-Raabe’s friend Maryanne Dyer, who volunteers for the crisis text line.

Jesus gives grace and calls us to the way of salvation - 6th after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Luke (9:51-62)

⁵¹When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up,

       he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

       ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him.

              On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him;

                     ⁵³but they did not receive him,

                            because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

                            ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it, they said,

                                   “Lord, do you want us to command fire

                                          to come down from heaven and consume them?”

                            ⁵⁵But Jesus turned and rebuked them.

                                   ⁵⁶Then they went on to another village.

⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to him,

       “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸And Jesus said to him,

       “Foxes have holes,

       and birds of the air have nests;

              but the Son of Humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”

⁵⁹To another Jesus said,

       “Follow me.”

       But he said,

              “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

              ⁶⁰But Jesus said to him,

                     “Let the dead bury their own dead;

                            but as for you,

                                   go and proclaim the reign of God.”

⁶¹Another said,

       “I will follow you, Lord;

              but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

       ⁶²Jesus said to him,

              “No one who puts a hand to the plow

                     and looks back

                            is fit for the reign of God.”

The gospel of the Lord.

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Today’s Jesus is all about the tough love!  I might even go so far as to question his family values—no burying parents or even saying good-bye to family?  He just takes off and expects everybody else to drop everything and hop on board.  This doesn’t seem like the same Jesus who cast out the demons called Legion last week.

And in some ways he’s not the same.  We’ve jumped from last week’s healing of the Gerasene man with the demons past Jesus’ transfiguration—the turning point in his ministry at which he, as we hear reiterated today, sets his face to Jerusalem.

In the first half of Luke, Jesus gathers his followers and disciples and they journey with him, witnessing the healing and wholeness he creates for individuals and communities, including feeding over 5000 people!  This is the hope and trust we have in Jesus, the love and forgiveness we receive freely from Jesus.

But now, in the second half of Luke, his call to follow him is not so easy.  Now Jesus is going to confront the powerful in Jerusalem.  Now following Jesus will not be for the faint of heart.

Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem” and he is on a mission; nothing will stop him.  He sends folks ahead to prepare the way and the village of Samaritans doesn’t receive him.  Yet he is bound and determined and keeps going as the path is clearer without that stop.

James and John, also known as the sons of Thunder, don’t quite see eye to eye with Jesus on this.  They are as true to their name as they are off-base on their response.  They ask Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 

Where the village that doesn’t receive him fails, this woefully misguided question does succeed in stopping Jesus in his tracks.  He turns and rebukes these sons of Thunder.  Bringing fire down on this village that has cleared the path for his continued journey doesn’t fit with Jesus’ mission.  Bringing down any violent condemnation doesn’t fit with God’s plan.

Even as Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to call the powerful to account, he is not going to condemn them, but to call them to repentance, to turn from their ways that lead not to life but to death.

Jesus’ road is a particular road and while he still focuses on compassion for the marginalized and outcast, Jesus is clearer in the challenge those of us with power and privilege will face in following him.  Because, there is joy and deep meaning to be found in following Jesus, and there is sacrifice and discomfort. 

Part of the shift in Jesus’ focus is a reflection of the difference between receiving God’s forgiveness and true salvation, which goes deeper.  The first half of Luke is the embodiment of God’s grace.  Just as Jesus moves about bringing healing and wholeness to those with and without the faith to ask, God’s forgiveness and love is free to all of us.  That’s why it’s called grace.  It’s the easy part of this life of faith, because it is entirely dependent on God, not us.  It is the thing that pulls us and the other disciples into following Jesus, realizing the healing and wholeness that he brings.

Salvation is a different step along the journey of faith and, like Jesus in today’s gospel, it is both more urgent and more difficult for many of us.  Rev. Lura N. Groen describes salvation, stating, “salvation is about living in right and good and loving relationship with God, your human siblings, and all creation, in a joyful, whole, holy relationship. And if we don't do the work, it is literally, functionally impossible to be in that relationship.”

Salvation, especially as we experience it in the gospel of Luke, goes deeper and happens right now—here on this earth in each moment.  And it happens in community.  Salvation has to do with how we are in relationship with each other and we can’t be in right relationship with each other when our actions and inactions harm others.

As M encouraged us a couple weeks ago, we need to examine our place in the world, to question if we love the systems and institutions we are a part of more than the neighbor whom Jesus calls us to love.  As we follow Jesus we also question the systems set up in this culture, economic, political, and social ones.  Jesus calls us also to question whether these systems help care for the oppressed and marginalized or further oppress and marginalize those we’ve deemed as “other.”

Rev. Groen points out that “… [we] won't experience true salvation without repenting of [our] racism and sexism, without being forgiven, without the work of transforming [our] heart and [our] life.”

It is no simple task.  Salvation requires our participation and our self-examination.  When we need our hair cut, do we have any trouble finding someone who knows how to handle our hair?  Like M reflected, when we go to a store, are we treated with more respect and less suspicion than we would if our skin were darker or we spoke another language?  When we are out with our loved ones, do we feel anxious or hesitant about holding their hand as some still do in today’s culture?  When we walk down the street in a city, do we think about if how we are dressed will be used as an excuse for harassment?  When we enter a building, does it have a ramp for wheelchair access? These are some of the questions raised when we follow Jesus and seek salvation.

In today’s gospel, Jesus names his own reality as one who is oppressed.  As he says so eloquently in today’s gospel, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”  When we take a new step in faith, we step toward the oppressed Christ who is crucified in all those who are oppressed and marginalized throughout the world. 

And in this process, the Holy Spirit frees us from the façade of privilege that we carry.  We no longer have to be perfectly put together.  We no longer have to hold our emotions stoically inside.  In calling us to follow as Jesus’ “face [is] set toward Jerusalem,” Jesus gives us the opportunity to stop trying to look good, to stop putting store in what our culture demands of us, and instead Jesus invites us to risk being in relationship with those different from us, to risk our own sense of security, and to risk messing up—being imperfect and awkward.

As we as a community of faith set our faces to the farms this summer, Jesus invites us as well into the risk of broken Spanish, of attempts to communicate and build relationships, of wondering what it is like to live in a country with a language different from the one we grew up with, of sharing food and corn hole competitions, even when we mix up words like hombres y hombros—men and shoulders.  And in all of this Jesus is already on the farms with the folks there, waiting for us to arrive and walking with us on the way.

Jesus has set his face to Jerusalem, his mission is clear, his love and forgiveness abounds for each of us, and his call is to follow him. 

To follow Jesus into a sometimes scary place of vulnerability, into a difficult way of non-violence, resisting our urges to demonize others, trusting that even in messing up we are growing in relationship with our neighbors and through those relationships, growing also with God. 

Jesus’ way is difficult and it is the way of life.  Jesus leads the way and accompanies us throughout, so that we are never left behind or alone.

Thanks be to God.