The Importance of Touch; a sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 13.10-17

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “ Woman, you are set free from your sickness. ” ¹³ He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.

¹⁴ The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “ There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day. ”

¹⁵ The Lord replied, “ Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? ¹⁶ Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day? ” ¹⁷ When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

Jesus was a troublemaker.

I say, “was”. “Is”. Jesus is a troublemaker.

But he’s consistently causing trouble by showing and expecting mercy.

He expects mercy out of the godly, the Temple hierarchy. They don’t appreciate that. They want him to just play by the rules.

He shows mercy to those who are hurting and oppressed and forgotten and lost.

And sometimes that’s not a problem. But sometimes, in the eyes of the Temple hierarchy, he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Like today.

It’s the Sabbath. It’s Saturday; the day of rest. Hebrew law says you don’t work on Saturday. It’s a really big deal, just like not working on Sunday is a big deal to some people today.

And there are really strict definitions of work in the Hebrew law. And there’s room for interpretation, just like in any legal system.

And Jesus is in the Synagogue, doing the every-Saturday church thing because Jesus is a good Jew (don’t forget that). He’s such a good Jew and an amazing scholar (because who knows the Law and the Prophets better than the Word who inspired them?) that he’s in the Synagogue teaching.

Which is a thing that some people do as work now.

So, to our minds, Jesus is in the Synagogue, on Saturday, working.

Now, that would bother us, probably, who are more sensitive to a modern definition of “work” and who are concerned about strict adherence to the Sabbath laws.

But it doesn’t bother first-century Jewish legal experts.

What bothers them is when Jesus happens to glance across the room, mid-midrash, and spot this poor woman who’s standing out specifically because she’s not standing out. She’s hunched over and broken.

And Jesus (all compassion; pure, unbounded joy) calls her to him.

Girl, eighteen years is far too long. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Be free now.

And then, he touches her.

Now, be honest with yourself. When you encounter someone who is in any way less than attractive, disfigured, is your first impulse to touch her?

That’s a terrible bias we tend to have. And I don’t want to explore its source, at least not now, but I want to recognize that what Jesus is doing is exactly what we’ll prefer not to.

This hunched-over, disfigured, dispirited woman; he touches her.

And that, Luke says, is when she straightens up and begins to praise!

Because Jesus touches her.

I thank God that we are past the prudish Victorian era, with formalized emotion and its rules against touch. I thank God that we are past the extreme response of the sexual revolution, that we are now coming into some sort of balance, something between prudish restriction and impulsive liberty.

But some of us are still afraid of touch.

Even though touch is healing. Even though study after study has shown how important touch is. Even though teacher after teacher has learned how powerful a touch on the shoulder is. Even though parent after parent has known how important is a kiss on the forehead.

Touch.

Plenty of people are afraid, at least in the developed world, to touch because of sanitation risks. The advertising world batters us with products to kill away every organic particle that anyone else might breathe or high-five onto us.

That’s something we have to get over

A) because the risk, seriously, isn’t as high as commercials would have us think, and

B) because Jesus shows us that touch is healing.

Seriously, what do we have to be afraid of? I mean, if we really believe what we say we believe, what real harm can a little germ do to us anyway? Remember that it was while Paul was imprisoned, of all things, when he said:

²¹ Because for me, living serves Christ and dying is even better. ²² If I continue to live in this world, I get results from my work. ²³ But I don’t know what I prefer. I’m torn between the two because I want to leave this life and be with Christ, which is far better. ²⁴ However, it’s more important for me to stay in this world for your sake.

We serve a Christ who isn’t afraid to get involved with people. We serve a Christ who touches the lepers, the sick, the unclean. We serve a Christ who tells his disciples to rip the grave clothes off a man dead four days! Gross!

But we serve a Creator who creates for us every moment of our lives, not just the civilized stuff of polite conversation.

We are all human. And God creates us, inside and out, from birth to death, from table to toilet, and loves us in and for every moment.

What more do we have to fear, we who are so much the same in so many ways?

We celebrate saints and prophets who deal with the fear of heeding their call in many different ways. Who deal with the fear of facing different kinds of people who are so unlike them.

Consider Jeremiah, to whom the Lord says:

⁵ “ Before I created you in the womb I knew you;

before you were born I set you apart;

I made you a prophet to the nations. ”

⁶ “ Ah, LORD God, ” I said, “ I don’t know how to speak

because I’m only a child. ”

⁷ The LORD responded,

“ Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’

Where I send you, you must go;

what I tell you, you must say.

⁸ Don’t be afraid of them,

because I’m with you to rescue you, ”

declares the LORD .

And what does God do to give Jeremiah a word to speak? Something we wouldn’t dare today. Something mothers only do with their children when they’re young. Something we reserve only for oral hygenists.

⁹ Then the LORD stretched out his hand,

touched my mouth, and said to me,

“ I’m putting my words in your mouth.

God is still touching us today. Jeremiah is pretty amazing, but that calling is something we receive today, too. God is still touching our mouths, inspiring us, putting divine words into us.

And if God will so intimately touch us, then shouldn’t we be so bold as to touch others?

After all, touching others is touching what is holy.

Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’

What do you think? Are you willing to put aside the fear and the stigma of touch, of encountering people who might not otherwise be “worth your time”, and be the touch of Christ for them? Because you might just find Christ touching you, too.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Cost of Freedom; a sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 9.51-62

⁵¹ As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent messengers on ahead of him. Along the way, they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, ⁵³ but the Samaritan villagers refused to welcome him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “ Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them? ” ⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and spoke sternly to them, ⁵⁶ and they went on to another village.

⁵⁷ As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “ I will follow you wherever you go. ”

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “ Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One y has no place to lay his head. ”

⁵⁹ Then Jesus said to someone else, “ Follow me. ”

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

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “ Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and spread the news of God’s kingdom. ”

⁶¹ Someone else said to Jesus, “ I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house. ”

⁶² Jesus said to him, “ No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom. ”

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

As we prepare for Fireworks and Flag Flying day, I find it appropriate to offer a word about freedom.

And by a curious coincidence (if we believe in coincidence), our readings today also say something about freedom and the nature of following Jesus.

How about that?

We are living in a region and in a time in which freedom has a very specific, political context, and the word is really hard to understand apart from that context. Freedom means the right to free and fair elections, the right to determine our own destiny, the right to property and prosperity, the right to speak our mind in the public sphere.

It’s a kind of freedom that we believe must be defended through the threat of violence, and so we also protect the right to bear arms in the interest of maintaining a well-regulated militia.

Which is not, of course, the same as every propertied person owning a firearm to defend his land, home, and family. A well-regulated militia is not the same as anarchy.

But I digress. Already.

Paul shares this proverb with us:

Christ has set us free for freedom. Therefore, stand firm and don’t submit to the bondage of slavery again.

But what kind of slavery are we talking about? Not the kind that leads to throwing crates of British tea into the Boston harbor. Not the kind that led to the Civil War.

Paul is very specific about the kinds of things that own us:

sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, ²⁰ idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, ²¹ jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that.

I love how earthy, how real the CEB is here, by the way. We aren’t hiding behind more abstract words like “licentiousness” or “factions”. “Doing whatever feels good” and “group rivalry” are so much more clear.

Freedom in Christ has nothing to do with what we’ll be celebrating this week. The freedom we celebrate this week often leads to any number of the actions in Paul’s list, in fact. That’s why so much of the world despises us. We are a hypocritical and fundamentally greedy, lustful people. We use our political freedom as a pass for corruption and idolatry. We use our capitalistic ideology as a pass for oppressing the very people God swears to protect.

And setting ourselves against the people God swears to protect does not put us in a very tenable position, folks.

Just how long do we think we can hold out when we pit ourselves against God?

Church, we have to do better.

We have to forsake shallow political freedom and greed-based ideology for the sake of freedom in Christ.

And that freedom doesn’t look like the kind of freedom we understand. Listen again to how Jesus responds to the various people who want to follow him:

⁵⁷ As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “ I will follow you wherever you go. ”

⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “ Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One y has no place to lay his head. ”

⁵⁹ Then Jesus said to someone else, “ Follow me. ”

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

⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “ Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and spread the news of God’s kingdom. ”

⁶¹ Someone else said to Jesus, “ I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house. ”

⁶² Jesus said to him, “ No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom. ”

Does that sound like freedom to you?

What kind of expectation does Jesus have of us? Homelessness, neglect of the dead, abandoning our families. That doesn’t sound like compassion and understanding. It doesn’t sound like family values. It doesn’t even sound like Torah.

But it does sound contextually appropriate.

Today’s reading is introduced:

As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem.

Luke 9:51 is exactly that point at which the gospel turns toward the cross. Luke’s “carefully ordered account”

 takes on a fundamentally different tone here. It gets darker, more foreboding, more grave.

It’s no wonder Jesus would be warning people off now. He knows what’s coming. He knows what’s in store. And he knows that there will be no one who’s capable of following him all the way to the cross.

No one.

Everyone leaves him.

But we’re still called to try. And we’re promised things greater than the blessing of Elisha if we will try.

Elijah said to Elisha, “ What do you want me to do for you before I’m taken away from you? ”

Elisha said, “ Let me have twice your spirit. ”

The risk of staying behind, getting caught up in our own stuff, neglecting the call to follow, is missing that blessing. The risk we take in slavery to idolatry and greed is to miss out on freedom and power.

But isn’t the blessing worth the risk?

Because if we would forsake our burdens, our greed, our idolatry, and choose to follow Christ along the difficult, painful road to the cross, we would also find Jesus bringing us the rest of the way to freedom.

If we will follow Christ as far as our mortal being will allow, Christ will take us beyond the pain and beyond the fear. Christ will take us to glory.

Not just the glory that’s got three syllables in our pulpits (“guh-law-ree!”). Christ will take us into the active, present, right-now glory of bringing the Kingdom of God today. Harvesting and sharing the fruits of the Spirit that Paul reminds us:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control

And oh, that’s good news, friends. That’s Jesus bringing blessing through us. That’s Jesus making us his own hands and feet. That’s Jesus reaching out through us and making us bringers of salvation and healing and forgiveness.

That’s Jesus reaching through us and offering real, true, lasting freedom.

Forget the barbecue and the flags and the fireworks, y’all. If you want to celebrate and bring true freedom today, come join me, and together we’ll make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God Will Find You; a sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 8.26-39

²⁶ Jesus and his disciples sailed to the Gerasenes’ land, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷ As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a certain man met him. The man was from the city and was possessed by demons. For a long time, he had lived among the tombs, naked and homeless. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down before him. Then he shouted, “ What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me! ” ²⁹ He said this because Jesus had already commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had taken possession of him, so he would be bound with leg irons and chains and placed under guard. But he would break his restraints, and the demon would force him into the wilderness.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, “ What is your name? ”

“ Legion, ” he replied, because many demons had entered him. ³¹ They pleaded with him not to order them to go back into the abyss.t³² A large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. Jesus gave them permission, ³³ and the demons left the man and entered the pigs. The herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned.

³⁴ When those who tended the pigs saw what happened, they ran away and told the story in the city and in the countryside. ³⁵ People came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully dressed and completely sane. They were filled with awe. ³⁶ Those people who had actually seen what had happened told them how the demon-possessed man had been delivered. ³⁷ Then everyone gathered from the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave their area because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and returned across the lake. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged to come along with Jesus as one of his disciples. Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “ Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you. ” So he went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

At certain points in the Church’s history, the practice of anathematizing or ostracizing people has been put in place for folk who didn’t fit the mold or who caused trouble. Today, in some circles, it’s called shunning or the very polite “removing the right hand of fellowship”.

In fact, I have a colleague whose church had so much trouble out of one member that they had to gather before she could arrive and lock the door on her before she could come in.

We’re usually a little more subtle when we don’t want to welcome someone into our fellowship.

A little. Not a lot.

We stop talking to someone. We talk about them so they can hear us. Our conversation with them turns venomous.

It’s a little less obvious than locking someone out of the church, but it’s a lot more hurtful.

But sometimes we do make it clear to someone just how unwelcome they are. We close them out of our church, out of our family, out of our circle of friends. We exclude them in every possible way until it is very clear to them that the little box that remains for them to abide in is the only place they are welcome to be.

That’s what had happened to the man with the Legion within him. His behavior was so unwelcome that he was bound in chains until he could bear it no longer and fled away from that toxic environment into the wilderness.

See, if that doesn’t sound familiar, we might need to spend more time in self-reflection. Thinking about how we treat our neighbors. Because I can guarantee that each of us who has made it halfway through childhood has either experienced ostracism or practiced it on someone else.

Usually both.

And sometimes it’s because of a situation like Elijah’s, although not necessarily so extreme.

King Ahab’s wife Jezebel has threatened Elijah with his life, and he is on the run. He goes on his own into exile, a day’s journey into the desert, and there he doesn’t bemoan his situation. He bemoans his behavior.

“ It’s more than enough, LORD ! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors. ”

And under a solitary broom bush, exhausted by fear and flight, he sleeps.

Now, I need to pause for an aside here.

We often teach our children that God is watching us like Santa Claus.

You know that old song that’s such a terrible threat wrapped in such a pleasant little tune:

You better watch out

You better not cry

Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town

Exactly what kind of goblin or troll are we trying to make Santa out to be?

For that matter, what kind of goblin or troll are we trying to make God out to be?

You’d better be on your best behavior or God’s going to take your life in the middle of the night!

God will find you!

Holy cow, y’all, let’s read our Bibles for a larger picture. Because the kind of God we find in today’s readings is a lot more prevalent than the bad-goblin kind of god we talk about in language of hellfire and damnation.

Elijah is sleeping deep in the desert under a lone broom bush when somebody finds him:

Hey, Eli! <Tap Tap Tap> Wake up. Eat something.

And again.

Hey, Eli! <Tap Tap Tap> Wake up. Eat something. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you.

Now, when that happens to our patriarchs, particularly to Abraham, the author is vague in describing the messenger. Is it God? Is it a messenger of God, an angel?

The author of Elijah’s story is more specific, because after Elijah journeys on a little farther, it is specifically the Lord who says:

“Why are you here, Elijah?”

See? It’s not God’s voice saying, “Elijah, you’ve run away because your faith isn’t strong enough. I’m going to smite you now!”

“Why are you here, Elijah?”

I tend to think that’s a reflective question.

Elijah, what’s brought you here? Are you sure it’s what you were claiming and what’s making you feel so guilty?

I think it’s reflective because God doesn’t give Elijah an answer. Maybe the answer isn’t simple. It’s not tweet-length, that’s for sure.

I’ve been very passionate for the LORD God of heavenly forces because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant. They have torn down your altars, and they have murdered your prophets with the sword. I’m the only one left, and now they want to take my life too!

In the CEB, that’s 262 characters. That’s two tweets long.

In today’s terms, that’s no simple answer.

So God finds Elijah, nourishes him for forty days, and sends him back out with a job to do.

Just like Jesus finds the man on the side of the lake, clears away his deep trouble, and tells him:

Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you.

God doesn’t find him to admonish him for letting himself become a house for demons. God finds him to heal his wounded, worn-out, possessed, unwelcomed spirit.

God doesn’t find Elijah to strike him down like the prophets of Baal. God finds Elijah to give him sustenance for the rest of his difficult journey.

Friends, God is longing for us to realize today that God is finding us to offer us comfort, peace, reconciliation, joy.

I should say that we all need some of that.

And some of us need to recognize that God is longing to make soul-finders of us, too: people who find the broken, the battered, the road-weary, the possessed, the unwelcomed. God wants to work through us to find them and love them back to Jesus.

If that’s a call you think you can handle today, then I welcome you to come and accept it. If you simply need the reminder of God’s welcome of you today, God is offering it. Now is the time.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

a sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 14.23-29

²³ Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word that you hear isn’t mine. It is the word of the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you while I am with you. ²⁶ The Companion, w the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.

²⁷ “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. ²⁸ You have heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away and returning to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. ²⁹ I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you will believe. ³⁰ I won’t say much more to you because this world’s ruler is coming. He has nothing on me. ³¹ Rather, he comes so that the world will know that I love the Father and do just as the Father has commanded me. Get up. We’re leaving this place.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

When we confess our faith, we talk about God who is Three in One. Three persons, one God.

We do that because, early on in our history, the Church recognized that every time we talked about our Creator, the Father, who shelters us as a Mother Hen, we were talking about God. Every time we claimed Jesus as Lord, we recognized the Nazarene as God. Every time we talked about the Holy Spirit, we breathed in and out the very inspiration of God.

But when we hear about any one of those persons in contrast with another in scripture, we also reconize that they are distinct.

Yes, they are all God. Yes, God is one. But these persons are different.

And that problem is what the early Church gathered to work out. And even though the Council of Nicaea came up with the Nicene Creed, a slight difference in verbiage managed to rip the Church in two, East and West.

The Church of Constantinople, whence derives the Orthodox Church (“orthodox” means “right belief or confession”), and the Church of Rome, whence derives the capital C Catholic Church (“catholic” means “universal”).

And, of course, the Church has been splitting at the seams ever since. It’s taken us two millennia to even come close to being able to productively talk about cooperating or working together. And a lot of our denominations, quite possibly The United Methodist Church included, are still suffering from fragmentation.

Because we’re too hard-headed to see past our disagreements and work together.

I digress.

Trinitarian theology. It’s not something that’s distinctly stated in scripture, but today’s gospel reading comes about as close as anything else.

Judas asks Jesus how he will reveal himself to them without revealing himself to the rest of Creation. So the Son talks about the Father’s love in sending the Holy Spirit to us as a Companion. Son, Father, Spirit.

The gospel reading is relevant today because it looks forward to an upcoming holy day, happening in two weeks: Pentecost.

More on that later.

Today’s reading is preparation.

The text prepares us for the upcoming event. And Jesus prepares the disciples for what is to come.

You can read around this passage on your own and see that happening, too. This is Jesus’ farewell, his last words of hope and encouragement. I’m sure it freaked out the disciples. Don’t you get freaked out when people start getting all morbid and talking about “Listen, when I go…”?

It’s not a comfortable conversation. And maybe that’s why Jesus reminds them that the Spirit who will remain with them is Companion and Comforter.

When we’re faced with fear, with grief, with change, what we seek is comfort.

I think that’s why our reading from the Revelation today is so often used in funerals and memorial services. It offers a beautiful picture of a glorious reunion.

And that’s about as deeply as some people will see it.

But I’ve asked you to look at staging before. There are important things to notice in the story.

Sure, we’ve all heard that there’s no temple and no need of sun or moon, because God is the temple and the light.

But there’s this bit about the river flowing through the street from the throne.

That’s weird, first of all, because the river flows through the street. Typically, that’s exactly what you want to avoid when building a street. When I was in the Sudan, the daily rains would wash through the streets like rivers, and the result wasn’t pretty. Gullies so deep in the road that you could stand in them. I’m glad I wasn’t driving.

But that’s not the most striking thing about the river.

It flows from the throne, and it’s got to go somewhere. And if it’s got to go somewhere, where do you think that is?

It’s not a fountain, y’all. It’s a river. Rivers follow gravity. They have to go somewhere. They don’t just recycle, not until they evaporate and rain again.

The river has to go out.

And John tells us:

On each side of the river is the tree of life, which produces twelve crops of fruit, bearing its fruit each month. The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations.

It’s also a weird image because trees almost always have one root system, and a river can’t just flow through a tree. If you need to, maybe you could think of the kind of plant that drops tendrils from its branches and takes root over and over again in different places.

The point, though, is that the tree of life is along the river. The leaves are for the healing of the nations.

What I want you to picture is the tree of life dropping its leaves into the river, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb through the city and into the nations, offering healing.

In fact, think of a healing tea. That is, after all, what happens when you combine leaves and water.

The river of life is the healing tea for the nations.

And because of that healing:

There will no longer be any curse.

Because nothing comes from God that is not blessing.

When God speaks, there is no curse. When God speaks, there is only blessing. When God speaks, there is only healing.

Is that good news?

I think it is.

It trumps the Abrahamic expectation that the Israelite line would survive and prosper. It trumps the prophetic expectation that Jerusalem will outlast her persecution and triumph over the kingdoms of the earth.

It sure trumps any short-sighted American dream of prosperity and victory.

It looks forward not only to the triumph of God over evil, but the triumph of God over death itself!

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.

Man, I wish we could quit our bickering and griping about who’s right and wrong. I wish we could drink of that Throne of God tea and know that God’s got this in the end.

I wish we could hear that good news and stop complaining about how evil the world is, how bad things are getting.

I have serious doubts that things are as bad as we’re making them out to be.

We’re just afraid.

But Jesus doesn’t give us fear. Jesus gives us peace.

Why can’t we just shut up and trust that peace?

Why is it that we have to rail and rant every time we hear something we disagree with? Why can’t we just offer each other Throne of God tea and trust God’s healing to work everything out?

Because, in the end, God will work it out. It may just not look like it when you’re in the middle of it.

Take, for example, Paul’s excursion into Macedonia with his crew. God said, “Go to Macedonia!” and Luke lists this big route they had to go through, but they went.

Jews. Going into Gentile territory.

It’s like Christians going into Bahrain or something. What would you do if God said to you, “Go to Baghdad and preach the good news!”

Do you have that kind of courage?

Jews in Gentile territory. They meet this woman. This Gentile woman. A proselyte. That’s what Luke is pointing out by calling her a “God-worshiper”. She was a Jewish convert. But she’s still a Gentile. And she’s still a woman. And they’re still Jews in Greek land.

Filthy, unclean situation. They shouldn’t be there.

But not only are they there; they stay at her house!

Scandalous!

But the Holy Spirit is good at leading us into scandal. The Holy Spirit is good at going into the places where we don’t want to go, because that river flowing out of the City doesn’t just go where we want it to. It goes everywhere God wants it to go.

We don’t control it.

So let’s stop being so surprised when the good news is being proclaimed in places and by people we don’t think it oughta. Let’s embrace it, revel in the glory of God that we can’t begin to imagine! Let’s throw away our expectations and preconceived notions, because they’re only based on our own prejudices anyway.

Let’s give that all up and trust the peace of Jesus, because there isn’t a dogma in the world that’s as good as Jesus’ love.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you.… Don’t be troubled or afraid.

God is with us, who is all that we need, Three in One, Alpha and Omega, our Companion and our Comforter, our Emmanuel. God is with us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Could I Stand in God’s Way? a sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 13.31-35

³¹ When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One t has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³² If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One u in himself and will glorify him immediately. ³³ Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’

³⁴ “ I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. ³⁵ This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other. ”

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

You know, we get really tied up in the stuff of doing ministry. And I haven’t seen or heard of a church that’s not guilty of this. We spend so much time on programming that we forget what the disciples of Christ are really supposed to be about.

Covered-dish meals

Cantatas

Building projects

Evangelism pushes

Fund raisers

Paraments

Traditions

Training events

Spending weeks arguing about the color of the carpet…

Details.

And people will leave a church over those details.

Well, maybe we should just let them. Maybe it’s best to hold on to what the church is really about, what it is supposed to look like to be a Christ-follower.

Because, frankly, in those moments and decisions when we get stuck on details, when we let the everyday stuff of ministry occupy all our attention, we become little more than dead weight for a Church that ought to be trying to set sail on the wind of God’s Spirit.

Is that really what we want to be? Is that really what we want to do?

As a pastor, I get to see some of the absolutely ugliest behavior and attitudes that people put on. And that’s not because I’m playing politics or hanging out with greedy corporate CEOs. That’s not where humanity is at its ugliest.

Humanity is at its ugliest when our ugliness contrasts most strongly with the expectation to be our best.

What Jesus expects of us, and what the world demands of us, is that we as Jesus’ disciples ought to be producing fruit. What Jesus expects of us isn’t a whole bunch of programming and arguing and name-calling.

What Jesus expects of us is really very simple.

Love each other.

That’s it. Love each other.

Think you can handle that?

So the next time you find yourself in an argument with your friend, just remember Jesus’ new commandment: Love each other.

The next time you want to pick a fight over who gets to do what and where, just remember Jesus’ new commandment: Love each other.

The next time you start to bully someone into submission because, doggone it, you’re right, just remember Jesus’ new commandment: Love each other.

And I know that his is one of those passages that’s really easy to relate to just the inner circle of the church, those of us who claim and know Jesus as Savior. We only have to love Jesus-lovers.

As if that weren’t hard enough.

But the thing is, early on in the first-century Church, God had this weird interaction with Peter.

Now, the story is twice as long as our reading from Acts, but Peter does a really good job summing it up.

He’s in Joppa, praying or napping or something on a roof, and he has this vision.

Now, the background:

Peter is a Jew. You probably know that. Jews have strict dietary regulations. They can’t eat certain things, like shellfish and pork, which is why I could never be a Jew.

Well, in Peter’s vision, this great big tablecloth is lowered down from the sky, and it’s god a whole bunch of unclean animals on it, stuff that’s off the Jewish menu.

God says, Peter, hunt some of these down and have a feast.

And maybe Peter thinks it’s a test. He refuses.

This happens three times, and the vision ends.

And Peter, who was never very good at catching the hint until Jesus hit him over the head with it, doesn’t understand what’s going on.

Then there’s a knock at his door, and a Roman centurion is asking Peter to visit with him and convert his household. This, also, is against Jewish law.

That’s when it clicks for Peter.

Never consider unclean what God has made pure.

The world that Jesus is healing and calling to God is much bigger than Peter’s Jewish worldview.

And the world that Jesus is calling us to love is much bigger than our “Christian” worldview.

Never consider unclean what God has made pure.

How do we know how God is choosing to work? How do we know through whom God is choosing to do miracles?

Is God really limited by what we think of as being the Church, as being holy?

This limited “Christian” worldview is why I get so annoyed by our preference of “Christian” businesses and “Christian” music and “Christian” events. It’s shocking how often those “Christian” things are embedded with practices that are contrary to God’s economy and Jesus’ command:

Love each other.

When Peter went to the Centurion’s house, he had a very specific experience that led the Jerusalem church into serious questioning.

But I am convinced, and I testify to you today, that Peter’s experience was not a one-off thing. The Holy Spirit had something much bigger in mind.

The experience at Cornelius’ house is a conversion not only for Cornelius, but also for Peter.

Cornelius needed to accept Christ’s sovereignty. He needed to understand and know Jesus as Lord.

Peter needed to accept Christ as Savior of all people. He needed to become the messenger of the good news to a broader world.

He tells Cornelius’ household:

I really am learning that God doesn’t show partiality to one group of people over another. Rather, in every nation, whoever worships him and does what is right is acceptable to him. This is the message of peace he sent to the Israelites by proclaiming the good news through Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all!

Lord of all.

All.

This singular event in Peter’s life sets in motion something that the Church still strives against today, I think to God’s great dismay.

We don’t make the rules.

It is God who breaks the rules.

Our rules only get in the way of God’s grace. Our rules only get us in trouble. When we believe that God can only work in certain places, through certain people, that God only calls certain things holy, we set ourselves up for a world of hurt. Frankly, we set ourselves up for a world of judgment, because we could never hope to live up to the standards we set for ourselves.

Instead, God is telling us today:

Never consider unclean what God has made pure.

It’s a hard lesson, and one you will not hear on your Sunday morning broadcasts. Most of the Church wants you to follow the rules and hold on to tradition.

But that’s not Jesus, y’all.

God’s Spirit is breaking the rules, a great maelstrom blowing down our towers and our magnificent theological edifices, but a gentle cooling breath whispering hope and peace to lonely souls who have often been rejected by God’s own people.

Peter’s confession is key, folks.

If God gave [the centurion’s household] the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, then who am I? Could I stand in God’s way?

Friends, the world is changing. The Word of Creation isn’t changing, but it’s being revealed in ways we haven’t seen before. Hardened hearts are being softened. New people are hearing the grace of God. New winds are carrying God’s Spirit in directions the traditional Church never imagined.

It’s time to ask ourselves, as God reveals so much beauty around us, as the Kingdom breaks in through new people, in new ways:

Could I stand in God’s way?

My prayer, friends, is that your answer is “no”.

Because then, your answer to Jesus is “yes”.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.