God's authority is given in baptism: 17th after pentecost a

A reading from Philippians (2:1-13).

¹If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
 ⁶who, though he was in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God
  as something to be exploited,
 ⁷but emptied himself,
  taking the form of a slave,
  being born in human likeness.
 And being found in human form,
  ⁸he humbled himself
  and became obedient to the point of death—
  even death on a cross.

 ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him
  and gave him the name
  that is above every name,
 ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus
  every knee should bend,
  in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 ¹¹and every tongue should confess
  that Jesus Christ is Lord,
  to the glory of God the Father.

  ¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Word of God, Word of Life.

The other reading I reference is Matthew 21:23-32. 

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In the summer of 1523, with the debates and battles of the Reformation in full swing, the faculty of the University of Ingolstadt received a letter challenging their action in forcing a student to recant his support of the Reformation.

What is perhaps most stunning is that Argula von Grumbach, the author of the letter, was the only one speaking out against this injustice and as a woman whose husband was Catholic, the odds were stacked against her.  But von Grumbach had studied the bible and knew about the priesthood of all believers.   

She knew that, as we hear in Philippians, Jesus’ authority comes from God, and she knew that she was entitled to share in that authority.  She embraced the spirit of the Reformation and used her authority and call as a baptized child of God to speak out against injustice.  Truly, we could say to her, “it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.”  God was indeed working through her.

Looking back, it’s clear to us, but it can be harder to recognize God at work in the moment, to acknowledge that God is up to something in us.  That’s partly why we have extended processes for ordination in both the PCUSA and the ELCA.  Recognizing God’s call in us is important, and we also work together as communities of faith to recognize God’s call in each other.

Sometimes the call is to leadership in the community or congregation and sometimes it is to ordination, as was the case when you all recognized and affirmed gifts for ordained ministry in Leah and Carina.

In 1832 the New York Synod recognized that God was calling Jehu Jones to ordained ministry.  Born to enslaved parents who were freed when he was 12, Jones joined a Lutheran congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, which encouraged him to pursue ordained ministry in the North.  Jones became what we would call a mission developer in Philadelphia, founding multiple congregations throughout his ministry.

Jones knew with a greater depth than we could know what it means that Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.”  Jones’ ministry was founded on the authority of God and even as he faced a lack of financial support for his ministries and mission as one aspect of racism in both the culture and the church, he persevered in what God was calling him to do.

The Lutheran Church recognized and affirmed God’s authority at work in Jehu Jones and called him into difficult ministry and Jones persevered through it all.

Then fast forward to 1990 when the predecessor organizations to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries ordained first Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost, and Phyllis Zillhart and then in the years leading up to the ELCA’s 2009 policy change they ordained another 15 people who had been banned from ordination in the ELCA due to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.  When these “extraordinary ordinations” took place, it was clear to those working toward policy change that eventually the ELCA would change its policy, and so people talked about borrowing their authority from the future.

They knew God was at work in them, and they knew that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," so, in the spirit of the Reformation, they did what was simultaneously controversial and faithful.  They “look[ed] to the interests of others” who would follow in their footsteps toward ordination.

Although this month we will celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformation didn’t happen in the 1500s and then stop.  It continues even today.  We continue to find new ways that the Holy Spirit is at work.

As in today’s gospel, we continue to hear people in positions of power question the authority of others to do the work of God, but Jesus still responds, pointing to the work of ordinary people like John the Baptist, Argula von Grumbach, Jehu Jones, Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost, and Phyllis Zillhart, whose power and authority come by the Holy Spirit.

In Philippians, we hear the exhortation, “⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

“⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Who else has heard this exhortation?  Who else proclaims this Good News?  Are there others today who humble themselves—perhaps in controversial ways—to look to others’ interests?

We don’t need to be powerful in this world to make a difference.  God empowers each of us.  Argula von Grumbach made a big difference without much power.  Jehu Jones’ persistence testified to God’s authority at work in him who was born into slavery.  Without those first 3 or 18 extraordinary ordinations, there wouldn’t be 274 publicly identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members in Proclaim.

Jesus’ controversial claims, like the one in today’s gospel, are part of following Jesus.  They’re intended to make us and others think.  So as we wonder about Jesus’ controversies we can also wonder: when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, who is it for?  When the president tweets, when a protest is held, when something happens that rubs us the wrong way or makes us feel defensive, what is the real issue and how does it impact the most vulnerable?

Protests and controversies aren’t intended to make us comfortable, but they make us wonder with the crowd around Jesus: whose authority is most important?  How is God at work?  What would Jesus have to say about helping hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico, about the importance of the lives of Black people who face racism daily, about the immigrants in our community who face discrimination, and about those who will be banned from this country by the newest travel ban?

Jesus preaches and teaches with divine authority and as we follow him, he calls us to “look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others,” to bend our knee at the name of Jesus and in service to others, because that is God’s call for us in baptism.

Thanks be to God.

International Roma Day

On April 17, 1423 King Sigismund wrote a letter of safe conduct for "Ladislaus, Gyspy Voivode, and those who depend on him."  This is one of many letters and one of the most well-known granting safe travel and autonomy for Roma in Central Europe.  This letter protected Roma, who have lived throughout Central Europe (and the whole world) from even before that time and since.

Today is International Roma Day.  Many people have no idea who Roma are, let alone that this day exists.  If our current administration is any example, they also have absolutely no clue of the difficulties Roma have historically faced and continue to face today.  I was one of those people for a long time.

In 2009 I was accepted to serve with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Young Adults in Global Mission program in Slovakia.  I worked with Phiren Amenca, which meant that I spent much of my time in relationship with Roma in the village of Rankovce.  This year was profoundly formative in my life for many reasons.  The relationships I formed and the people who opened their lives to me, an outsider from the states, continue to impact how I live (and are part of why I am writing this blog today).  Roma have not always been welcomed, valued, or affirmed like they were by King Sigismund.  Their history is much more difficult.

Growing up, the sentence that best sums up what I learned about the Holocaust, or porraimos (the devouring) in Roma was: six million Jews died in the Holocaust.  Since then I have learned better.  I don't know of anyone who "died" in the Holocaust.  People were systematically targeted, tortured, and killed in the Holocaust.  Six million of those targeted, tortured, and killed were Jewish.  Almost five million more were not Jewish.

It is, indeed, vital to recognize the ways that anti-semitism (including anti-semitic writing from the namesake of my faith tradition, Martin Luther) actively targeted and still targets Jewish people.  It is also important to recognize that, by our best estimates from incomplete information, at least half a million, or 500,000 Roma (sometimes known as gypsies, though unless someone is self-identifying, that is generally a derogatory term) were also targeted, tortured, and killed.  This is between one quarter and one half of all Roma living in Europe at the time.

It's harder to know the details about Roma because frequently they were categorized as "social deviants," "tramps," and later "Gypsies," among other terms.  The Romani and Jewish peoples were the two main and largest groups targeted because Nazi Germany categorized them as "racially inferior."  The intentional targeting, torturing, and killing of Roma was not recognized as being racially motivated until the 1970s and most scholars didn't begin to pay attention until the 1980s.

Roma also continued to struggle under communism, which attempted to erase their culture.  After the fall of communism, since the discrimination that Roma have faced for centuries was never addressed, and even the reality of their persecution under the Holocaust has been erased and downplayed for so long, Roma have continued to face discrimination throughout the world, especially in Central Europe.

Roma in Slovakia especially are often placed in schools for children with learning disabilities, hired last for work--if at all--even when they do a better job, and stereotyped as lazy, thieves, or conniving (where do you think the term "gypped" comes from?).  The Roma I encountered cared deeply about me.  They wanted to get to know me and I wanted to get to know them.  We were both outsiders in the dominant culture, which helped us connect.

Whether it was connecting with the children who came to our after school-type program or youth group activities, or the adults who volunteered and worked to help the kids who came or who participated in our bible studies, we took the time to get to know each other.  The friends I made among the Roma were the hardest to say good-bye to.  They taught me (or tried to teach me) to dance.  They stood up for me personally as a queer person and for other lgbtq+ people they didn't even know at bible studies and when I couldn't be there or couldn't stand up for myself.

Today is International Roma Day.  This month is a great month to learn more about Roma, so here are some resources:

Books:
We are Roma: One Thousand Years of Discrimination by Valeriu Nicolae
Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca

Links: 
Check out #internationalromaday on social media.
My friend and fellow YAGM, Matt's blog, which includes a paper shared at the European Commission Meeting on Roma in Europe in 2010. 
Phiren Amenca, the European-based organization I worked with as a YAGM.
A Huffington Post article about some of the five million people targeted, tortured, and killed during the Holocaust who were not Jewish, yet were purposefully targeted, including the Roma.

god promises "never again": 1st of lent

i primarily preached on genesis 9:8-17.

the holy gospel according to mark (1:9-15)

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

       and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

              ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water,

                     he saw the heavens torn apart

                     and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.

                     ¹¹And a voice came from heaven,

                            “You are my Son, the Beloved;

                                   with you I am well pleased.”

                     ¹²And the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness.

                            ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days,

                                   tempted by Satan;

                                   and he was with the wild beasts;

                                   and the angels waited on him.

¹⁴Now after John was arrested,

       Jesus came to Galilee,

              proclaiming the good news of God,

                     ¹⁵and saying,

                            “The time is fulfilled,

                                   and the dominion of God has come near;

                                          repent,

                                          and believe in the good news.”

The gospel of the lord.

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our readings this lent focus on covenants made by god with god’s people.  by and large, covenants of mutuality.  today, after a long, smelly time in the ark with the animals and immediate family, they are finally free.  i can’t imagine the emotions running through noah and his family to be back on dry ground with fresh air.  and before completely letting them loose, god makes a very wordy and repetitive promise to the noah family, every living creature with them, and their descendants.

this covenant is not quite like the others we will explore or even the others made at that time.  old testament scholar, cameron howard points out that covenants in that time typically involved commitments from both parties—usually initiated by one—about how to exist in relationship.  most of the time it was a conquering nation creating a covenant with a conquered one, where one side had the power and the other did not, and so the covenants clearly benefited one over the other, but both were able to agree on them. 

but today’s covenant is god making unconditional promises with noah’s whole family, “and your descendants after you, ¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.” 

and god expects nothing in return.

before the flood, humanity was not living up to its potential.  humans were acting with disregard for god and others.  through the flood, the old things have been washed away.  the sins committed, the pains and hurts of days gone by, and god chooses to be again in relationship with humanity.  sometimes we talk about the god of the old testament as a very different god from the one we know in jesus.  that god is vengeful and powerful and even violent.

but when we talk about god that way, we miss out on the god who is one and the same throughout the bible.  god is certainly multifaceted, but here in genesis, we encounter a god who, though god could choose again to destroy the world, instead chooses to limit those powers in order to be in relationship with us.  god chooses to never again destroy us or all of creation, but rather to be with us in love, no matter what humanity does. 

in the flood that washes away the inhabitants of the earth, making room for the new life that god is bringing forth, god washes away the sin of the past, yes, but not the memory of it.  in fact, god places a bow in the clouds—the rainbow—as a reminder of what god had done.  god did not want to forget the pain and sorrow of the flood.  god needs to remember, god needs the reminder to make sure it never happens again.

there is a saying that i don’t really like at all.  it is “forgive and forget.”  i don’t like it, because it doesn’t really work.  we continue to experience violence, pain, and hurt because we don’t remember the lessons of history.  when i was coming back from my year in slovakia, my dad and i spent two weeks in germany.  while we were there, we went to many places important to martin luther and the reformation and we went to many places important during the holocaust.  the two were more related than you might think.

at dachau concentration camp, there are several art memorials at the international monument by the roll call area of the camp.  one of the tour guides for dachau would end their tour at the international monument and after looking at several artists’ sculptures, they would end at an urn with the ashes of an unknown prisoner, behind which read the words “never again” in yiddish, french, english, german, and russian.  when the tour guide got there, they would simply say, “this is a lie.” 

we as humans have forgotten the horrors of the holocaust.  genocide has happened many times before and since the holocaust.  from the native peoples who were systematically killed on this land to more recent horrors.  j was telling me just last week about a book he read about the genocide in rwanda.  we forget what has happened—some people even deny that the holocaust happened at all.  we forget the true horrors of it, and so it happens again, and again.

forgiveness is about releasing the pain and anger that control us, about separating ourselves from the evil that has happened.  it is not about pretending that it never happened or allowing it to continue happening to us.  it is not about forgetting our past.  god even goes so far as to provide a reminder of the flood—not for us, although we do use it to remember god’s promises of love—but for god’s own self!  when god places a bow in the sky—a thing of beauty and wonder—it is a reminder of the pain and anger, and a commitment to never do it again.

a reminder of the love that is greater than the anger and deeper than the pain.  the rainbow is a reminder of all the diversity god has created in people, animals, plants—all of creation.  it is a reminder to god and to us that god is choosing to be faithful to us and promises to be our god of love forever.

these promises of god are made in exchange for nothing.  no matter how much we might mess up, god chooses to love us and be with us.  even when we might wish to wipe everything out and start over, god instead chooses to love us where we’re at.  we still face consequences for our actions—violence and wars still kill people and damage the environment, threatening all living creatures.  genocides still happen.

instead of wiping us all out and starting over, god remembers god’s promise and honors our free will.  god comes to us again and again in love in the waters that put to death our sin while bringing us alive to new life in christ.  life in the wilderness with jesus and the wild beasts, and life in this community of faith.  life with reminders of pain in the hope and promise of the One who fulfills all promises, the One whose “never again” truly means “never again.”  that is the god who love us; the god who promises life for us; the god who claims us in the waters of baptism and every day since.

amen.