Luke 24:13-35 NRSVUE

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

 

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

This story is often called “the walk to Emmaus,” because they met Jesus while walking to the town of Emmaus.  There were more disciples than just the 12 BIG NAME disciples, and some of these folks were not there when Jesus appeared in the upper room after the women saw him at the Tomb.

And then as now, people don’t always believe women.

Especially when what women have to say is… unexpected.

Cleopas and his buddy were pretty shaken up because none of what happened was what they expected.

Take a look at verse 19.

Cleopas and his buddy, like a lot of followers of Jesus, thought that Jesus was a mighty prophet who was going to redeem Israel.

Which meant many things to many people.

For some that meant that Jesus would replace the House of Herod as the vassal King of Judea, under Roman rule.

For others that meant that Jesus would make Israel Great Again – that is- restore Israel to the former glory of the kingdom of David and Solomon.  This idea ties into the title, Messiah – which means “anointed one” – because prophets, judges and kings were anointed with holy oil at the beginning of their service.

For yet others, they thought Jesus was Elijah returned, or the next Great Prophet – again an anointed position.  A Great Prophet who would lead the people back into God’s favor and as King Solomon proclaimed at the dedication of the Temple, in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

So they expected Jesus, as prophet or king to lead them into a season of redemption for Israel.

They didn’t expect Jesus to change the system, to disrupt the system, to tear the old system apart!

…they expected Jesus to get on top of the old system and make it work for them.

So they were flummoxed!

How was Jesus going to be the Anointed One – the Messiah – if he was dead!  Like 3 days ago dead!

They wanted to believe the women, but people don’t just rise from the dead!  

And how does Jesus restart his political campaign after having been crucified???

They were wondering, how does any of this even work???!!!

We’re so used to the Easter story, that it’s easy for us to forget how ridiculous it really is.

I met a person at seminary who told me about his first Good Friday service.

He said, “Wait, what??!!  Jesus died?  Nobody told me that Jesus died!  How did he become the leader of Christianity if he died??!!!”

His reaction made me think about how wild our sacred story really is.

And how reasonable the Disciple’s expectations were.

They grew up their whole lives learning about Great Prophets and Great Kings and the Temple covenant, and how when the Kings of Israel and Judea sinned against the poor and the vulnerable, God sent prophets to get them back on the right track.  And when the Kings humbled themselves, and prayed and sought to follow God again, then God forgave them and healed the land of Israel.

That was the story they grew up with.

That’s what they expected.

That’s how the system worked.

They were expecting Jesus to rise to the top of that system and then Israel would be redeemed – “re” as in,  made as great as before.

They knew that their leaders had sinned by failing to give justice to the poor – the widows and orphans and strangers who suffered under the corrupt leadership of the Herodians and the Chief Priests.

They knew that Herod the Great had invited Roman governance against the advice of the prophets.

They knew that their system of governance and religion – because there was no such thing as separation of church and state in the first century –  They knew that their system was not working.

They just didn’t realize that all systems work perfectly to produce the results they produce.

Systems often contain policies and practices that allow for certain people – usually rich and powerful people – to get away with things that poor and powerless people get punished for.

And the unchecked power of the Judean theocracy and the money driven Roman Empire were both designed to benefit the powerful over the vulnerable. 

Yet the disciples still believed in a system that had allowed King after King and priest after priest to get away with injustice and oppression.

They still believed, because they thought if they just had the right guy at the top, then the system could work for them.

They still believed because they had no idea that another system was possible.

Israel’s and Rome’s systems were already broken…

And it’s hard when things break, and we often feel helpless and don’t know what to do…

…but sometimes God is revealed in the breaking… of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations of what is possible.

Back to the story….

I love that Jesus lets them talk.

Jesus knows better than they do what is happening, but Jesus lets them talk it out.

Jesus is so much better than I am.  

I know that I should let people just talk it through, but I always want to jump to the solution.

Anybody else have that impulse to jump to solutions, when we really should be listening?

Jesus lets them talk it through, because Jesus knows that they need to.

And they are so…up in their heads about what has happened – that they don’t even notice that Jesus is right next to them.

Even when Jesus is explaining everything to them as only Jesus could, in verses 25 – 27, they are still so up in their heads that they are not taking in anything around them.

Until Jesus blessed the bread, broke it and shared it with them.

Then they were able to see Jesus.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

All human systems are flawed and eventually break.

Because all humans are flawed and breakable.

Friends, this is a hard time to be alive.

Because it feels like all our systems are breaking.

Our system of doing church is broken – people don’t participate the way they used to.

Our system of government feels broken, but honestly it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do — it’s just that an increasing number of people are no longer willing to accept that liberty and justice has always been for some and not for all.

Our culture – our rules of social interaction – are shifting and we cannot agree on what our morals and values are, or even what politeness looks like these days.

Our social safety net is broken – COVID was an apocalypse for our social safety net and the number of people who are food insecure, who are housing insecure, who are health care insecure, and who are insecurely employed, has risen every dang month since 2020.

But the Greek work apocalypse that we use to mean disaster,

originally meant something else.

Apocalypse meant, “God sighting.”

Or the in-breaking of God into our ordinary lives.

God is revealed in the breaking.

Jesus told the people on Palm Sunday that not a stone would remain on another stone – that God was Breaking the Temple System.  In the year 69, the Romans leveled the Temple, ending the system of sacrificing and the priesthood.

Jesus broke their expectations of his role as the anointed one, by dying.

But Jesus had already begun to create a new system at the Last Supper that he reminded them of at Emmaus – a system not of putting “our guy” on top of the old system, but a system of gathering with whomever comes and breaking bread.

A system that is about beloved community who share power with every blessed and broken member, not a system ruled by special men who hold power over its members.  Although us church people do have a tendency to look for leaders to tell us what to do, which is part of why our church systems are breaking.

It’s hard when things break, but God is revealed in the breaking.. of bread, of systems, of our certainties, of our expectations.

Communion

…so let us come to the table where God is revealed in the breaking of bread.

When they came to Emmaus, it was evening and the day was almost over, so they asked the stranger to stay with them and share a meal, because Jesus had taught them to practice hospitality to strangers, in the tradition of Abraham.

When the supper was ended, because in that time, sometimes your bread was your plate, or your bread was your spoon, for wiping up the last remains of your meal – so when the supper was ended Jesus took the bread, he blessed it….

He broke it

And he gave it to them

And they finally saw past their expectations and their worries and their fears and they saw Jesus.

They saw Jesus, giving them the bread, just like he had at the Passover supper in the upper room.

And when they could finally see clearly.

Jesus disappeared.

Because now they were ready to follow Jesus into the new way that Jesus taught us.

The text doesn’t say so, 

But I bet when they got over their surprise at Jesus vanishing…

They took the cup and blessed it and they shared it in remembrance of Jesus.

And so we continue to do so today.

Let us pray…

This table is Jesus’ table.

A table that is open to all.

Open to doubters and dreamers, and people blinded by our own expectations.

Open to all the beloveds gay and straight and Christian and something else, and undecided.

This is Jesus’ table and Jesus said everyone is invited, so you are too.

But no one is required.  

You don’t have to take communion, you’re just welcome to.

We have gluten free and glutenous bread, and we use alcohol free grape juice.  Come forward, down the middle, take a piece of bread, and a little cup, then place your empty cup in the trays at the side on your way back down the sides to your seat.

You can kneel up front before you return to your seat if that is meaningful for you.

Or somebody can bring communion to you.

Come – the table is prepared.

Matthew 28:1-10 NRSVUE

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Please join me in the traditional Easter Greeting!

Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen Indeed!

Christianity in its purest form proclaims, as Bishop Desmod Tutu of South Africa put it:

Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)

I admit that even as  a Progressive Pastor who believes that science is a gift from God,  I do believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead.

I believe it because I believe women…

I believe it because Governments are still in the habit of murdering those who speak out for the oppressed.

I believe that Jesus rose from the dead because God had a point to prove and that point is that all manner of evil may happen for a while, but not even death can stop LOVE from loving.

And love is why God came Godself, down to earth.

I believe that Jesus came down here to tell us that we are loved.  

Yes, all of us.

Yes, even the annoying ones.

Yes, even when *I’m* the annoying one.

God came down here to love us and show us what love means.

I do not believe that God the Father is an angry God who demanded a blood sacrifice for our sins in some horrific action of divine child abuse.

I believe that God knew that PURE LOVE was going to be too much for some people and that those people would choose violence in the face of LOVE.

I mean, humanity is still choosing violence.  We’re not hard to predict.

But God loves the whole world so much that God was willing to come down here Godself and subject Godself to humanity’s violence.

God gave us the free will to choose between love and hate.

But God was not willing to let hate win.

Goodness is stronger than evil!
Love is stronger than hate!
Light is stronger than darkness!
Life is stronger than Death!
(Desmond Tutu, An African Prayer Book)

So, yeah.  

I believe that Jesus didn’t have to die. 

Humanity chose, and is still choosing violence.

And I believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead to show us that Love Wins.

That no matter how crazy-awful life gets –

And there’s been a whole lot of awful craziness lately!

-eventually-

Love Wins.

And in those crazy-awful times where life feels like a dead end, love meets us on our way.

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

I always wonder, which other Mary.

Was it Mary the sister of Martha?

Was it Jesus’ mom, Mary?

Some other Mary?

Mary was a super popular name at the time!

So anyway, Mary and Mary got up before dawn after *the worst weekend of their lives* and went to the tomb to wash and dress Jesus’ body.  Tradition says that they brought the frankincense and myrrh that the Wise Men gave Mary at Christmas…

But, on their way there the earth shook and a shiny messenger appeared (messenger is the translation of the word, Angel) and told them that Jesus was risen and showed them the empty tomb.

So Mary and Mary, of course, head right back to the upper room where they were all hiding after the execution of Jesus to share the good news!

But, on their way, they met Jesus himself, who turned their bad times into a good time…

… to borrow a phrase from Afroman.

Jesus turned their bad times into a good time.

This is how God operates.

When things are falling apart.

When times are bad.

When it looks like evil is winning.

Jesus meets us on the way.

Does Jesus literally meet us on the way… not in my experience!

But I feel like God meets us, on the way of just trying to live our lives. God meets us embodied in new friends we never expected.  Friends who show up with that something-something that we didn’t even know we needed… or never expected to find.

God meets us, on the way, of just trying to live our lives, in the form of new opportunities that we didn’t think were possible.  God has certainly met us on the way towards this affordable housing project!  I didn’t think we could build affordable housing on this small plot of land with an asbestos riddled building, and yet… God is making it possible.

And often,  just like Mary and Mary, when we meet the messenger on the way, we encounter both joy and fear.

Because turning our bad times into good times often takes some work and encounters some pushback..

And it takes intention and effort to fortify our hearts with the kind of love that is stronger hate.

The kind of love that turns the other cheek.

The kind of love that gets knocked down because love refuses to use violence against violence.

The kind of love that gets back up again and offers a hug and a blessing instead of insults. 

And friends, I’ll be honest with you.

I don’t like going through bad times. 

I don’t like getting knocked down.

I don’t like being called names.

And when I do, I really want to fight back.

I really want to give as good as I get.

But when we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

When we decide to play by their rules we have already lost.

God does not call us to give as good as we get… God calls us to give better than we get.

Jesus could have raised an army — Jesus had a lot of followers, some of them even had money.

Jesus could have called down fire, or flood, or plagues or whatever – like God had done before.  But God had already tried that and it didn’t work.

Being mean doesn’t change people’s hearts and minds.

It just doesn’t.

So Jesus let the Roman government, and the powerful religious leaders do what they were going to do and simply showed them that no amount of violence, not even death, can keep love down.

These are scary times.

But God keeps meeting us on our way.

Throwing joy into our fear, like dunking chocolate into peanut butter.

Meeting us with compassion, 

Meeting us with friendship, 

Meeting us with opportunities, 

Meeting our needs,

God keeps meeting us, on our way, with love.

Love is unkillable.

Love Rises.

Love wins in the end.

Matthew 21:1-11  NRSVUE

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

 

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,

Look, your king is coming to you,

    humble and mounted on a donkey,

        and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

 

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

 

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 

10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Palm Sunday was a Protest march that mocked the Roman Empire and the Religious Leaders who were collaborators with their oppressors.

This is another one of those things that was super clear to the people at the time, but because we lack the local context, we don’t see it.  So here’s the context.

You might want to keep your bulletin handy to reference the reading as we go along.

Verse 1 holds the key. 

“When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives”

If you look at a map of First Century Jerusalem, Bethphage and the Mount of Olives are on the East side of the city.  Much like Portland, the East side and Southeast Jerusalem were the poor side of town.  Bethphage was a suburb of East Jerusalem – kind of like Gresham is to Portland.  It’s a great place, but the money is on the West Side.

In verses 2 – 5, Jesus sends the disciples into the village of Bethphage, into Greshem if you will to get Jesus a donkey.  Now, in the gospel of Matthew, this gets a little silly because the Matthew writers were taking scripture a little too literally.  In verse 5 the writers are quoting Zechariah 9:9, but not understanding Hebrew poetry.  

–  I mean, riding two donkeys, especially 2 donkeys of different sizes would be awkward.  So awkward that it would be a  miracle if he was able to stay on both of them!  But that’s not what happened!  

What happened was that Jesus rode one donkey and the writers were trying to prove that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah by citing Zechariah totally literally- which is not how poetry works. 

In Hebrew poetry, things are often repeated for emphasis – we call that parallelism.  It’s not that Jesus was riding on 2 donkeys, it’s that Zechariah was poetically mentioning the one donkey twice.

Here’s what Zechariah 9:9 actually says: 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

It doesn’t say, the king was riding on a donkey AND a colt.  It’s a double description of the donkey.  

We might say it this way today:

He was so humble that he rode a donkey,  not just any donkey, a baby donkey – like he couldn’t even afford an adult donkey!

It’s meant to be a poetic humble-brag, not a circus trick!

What all of this East Side imagery is meant to do, is show Jesus as being of the poor and for the poor.

He starts his march outside the poor side of town, out in the village of Bethphage, and he’s gathering a crowd of poor people who are marching into the city.

In today’s context it might have looked like this:

 Jesus, rode into Portland through Gresham, and he couldn’t even afford a car, so he rode in on a bike – and not like a motor bike – I mean he rode in on a bicycle!  And the poor people started cheering and filling the potholes in front of him with branches and sticks and even their clothes, so he wouldn’t fall off his bike, and this people’s march marched through Gresham and into Lents and kept going right down Foster street into downtown.  Gathering more and more people as they went.

Meanwhile, maybe on the same day… maybe a few days before or after,  Governor Pilate marched into the city from the West.  The West side of Jerusalem was where Herod’s Palace was, and the new Roman Theater, and the High Priest’s house.  The West Side was the rich side of town.

So Pilate would march into the city to be there for the high holy days of Passover, because Romans believed in worshiping all the gods so as not to make any of them angry.

Pilate would have marched into the city as the representative of the Emperor of Rome, with a full on military parade.  Chariots, Legionaries, calvary, an honor guard, and Pilate at the end of the parade mounted on a war horse with standard bearers carrying gold plated Roman Eagles mounted on poles.  His entourage would have shouted the titles of the Emperor:

“Our Lord and Savior”

“Son of God” – meaning the Emperor was the son of Apollo

And the heralds would have proclaimed, “Peace on Earth”  or Pax Romana – the Roman Peace.

Basically, in today’s context:

Pilate rode in from Hillsborough, through the West Portland Hills, then into downtown.  Pilate was preceded by tanks and soldiers, and he rode in a Humvee Limousine, with Big Flags on golden poles with eagles on top, surrounded by rich and important people.  

And I’m sure they made sure to clear all of the unhoused folks and trash off of the route and fill all the potholes before he got there!

This is why some Bibles add the title: “Jesus’ triumphal entry” to the beginning of the Palm Sunday reading.

Jesus was cosplaying a Roman Triumph.

This is also why early Christians called Jesus our “Lord and Savior” and the “Son of God.”  Early Christians were taking the titles of the Emperor and giving them to Jesus.

Early Christians were trolling Rome!

Early Christians and then later Christians were pointing out that Rome doesn’t save anybody.  Rome was violent and oppressive, and definitely not the bringer of peace on earth.

So while Pilate’s procession was shouting the titles of the Emperor.

The east side folks at Jesus’ march were shouting 

Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Part of this is that they were shouting the traditional Passover Procession Liturgy from the Psalms 113 – 118 which would be used as the King of Israel processed from the Palace to the Temple with the people to celebrate the Passover.

But Pilate had replaced the traditional liturgy with a recitation of the Titles of the Emperor.  Taking their religious tradition and replacing it with Roman Religious Nationalism.

The word Hosanna is the Greekized version of the Hebrew words “hoshia na”  means “save us,” from the Passover Liturgy from Psalm 118.

The larger context that would have been obvious to the second century writers and readers of the gospel of Matthew was that Palm Sunday was a protest march.

In a time where the rich religious leaders were toadying up to the Roman Governor and even blessing Pilate using the most sacred Holy Day in the Jewish Liturgical Calendar to spew Roman Nationalism – Proclaiming the Emperor to be their Lord and Savior and the Son of God.  

While the religious leaders were endorsing Pilate Hegseth, for “enforcing the law,” against “those people.”

Jesus was leading a march using the traditional Passover Liturgy of a Davidic King going up to the Temple to celebrate the Liberation of the Hebrew people from the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh, when they lived in poverty and wage-slavery in Egypt.

Yes.  Palm Sunday was political.

So the other day, I was scrolling on Facebook, as one does, when I saw an article on United Methodist News about the many United Methodist Churches here in the US, who are participating in Palm Sunday Protest marches.  Isaiah – the interfaith coalition in Minnesota has asked folks add their events to the list, so that they know who’s with them – so there’s a lot of Palm Sunday Protests happening today – and I’m participating in the one here in Portland starting at Terry Shrunk Plaza from 3-5pm.

Of course I made the mistake of looking at the comments.

The comment section on everything UMNews posts has been vile, ever since the Global Methodist Church was formed.  Here in the US they troll our social media.  In Africa GMC folks have violently attacked UMC folks.

But there was one comment that caught my attention.   A woman confidently stated that “Jesus would never participate in a protest.”

And I thought,  this is why I went to seminary.

This is why we need seminary educated clergy leading our churches.

This is why clergy need to have the education AND the courage to explain to people HOW the Gospel is Political.

Because if you don’t know that East Jerusalem was the poor side of town and West Jerusalem was the rich side of town…

If you don’t know that, “our Lord and Savior” and “Son of God” were Titles of the Roman Emperor.

If you don’t know that Pilate appropriated the Passover procession and the High Priests participated in that garbage misuse of religion to try to gain favor with Rome.

If you don’t know,  you might think that Jesus never participated in a protest march.

But now you do know.

So if you can, I’m asking you to do what Jesus did.

I’m asking you to join me this afternoon at Terry Schrunk Plaza at 3pm.

And maybe you need to bring a lawn chair.

And maybe we want to carpool and have a designated driver.

And maybe your body just can’t, or you’re already committed to being somewhere else, and that’s OK.  On Friday, May 1 you can participate in the General Strike by not buying anything and not working.  Portland Public schools will be on a furlough day on May 1.  

Why strike and not shop? Because we know that the God of this Empire is money.

Because from the Epstein files to, cutting medicaid, to the unconstitutional violence of ICE – this administration’s actions are incompatible with Christian Teachings.

And I am tired of Christianity being twisted to justify the unchristian actions of this administration. 

I know what Jesus did and did not do.

Jesus led a non-violent protest march to take back His Religion from Roman Nationalism.

John 11:1-16; 30-41  NRSVUE

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

I edited the reading again –  you may have noticed that it jumps from verse 16 to 32- it’s a really long one!

This is a story of premeditated resurrection.

Jesus knew that Lazarus was going to die

And Jesus was planning on resurrecting Lazarus.

This whole story functions in the gospel of John as a foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So Mary, Martha and Lazarus were siblings who lived together – this is important because women couldn’t own property, and Mary and Martha had no husbands or children that we hear about in any bible story, so that makes Lazarus essential to their household.  No Lazarus – no house.

So Lazarus’ death wasn’t just the death of their beloved brother, his death meant the death of Mary and Martha’s economic, legal, and social existence.  Two women without male relatives were basically legal non-entities in the first century – no voting rights, no economic rights, no property rights, only the right to receive charity if they were old enough to not be forced to marry.  So their grief was compounded with panic 

-What were they going to do?  

-Where were they going to live?  

-How would they eat?  

-Would they be forced to marry?

-Would any man want to marry them?

-Would that man be kind?

In the portion of this reading that I cut out, the first thing Martha and Mary each say to Jesus is, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died,” (Jn 11:21) which we see Mary say in verse 32.  

“Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died,” 

It’s a question we all ask when things go sideways.

Jesus, we prayed and prayed, why didn’t you act sooner?

God, can’t you see what’s going on here?

How long, O Lord, must this suffering last until you step in?

(with vulnerability)…Jesus, do you even care?…

Meanwhile the disciples who are with Jesus don’t want him to enter the city.  We’re back in verse 7.  They don’t want him to go anywhere near Jerusalem because the last time they were there a bunch of people tried to stone Jesus.

The stoning is in chapter 10. Where folks are still mad at Jesus for healing the man born blind, so then they pressure Jesus to tell them if he is the messiah or not, which in the gospel of John, Jesus is totally willing to tell people for free… so Jesus said he is the son of God, and then the crowd gets mad and they are ready to throw rocks, but Jesus talks his way out of it and then they try to citizen’s arrest him and Jesus slips away.

The disciples did not love almost getting stoned to death – stoning being the practice of corporate execution by the whole group throwing rocks at you until you die.  So in verse 7 the disciples are like, “Hey Jesus, how about we go back to Judea where they aren’t trying to stone us?”

But Jesus…

But Jesus… is already on his way towards premeditated resurrection, not just for Lazarus, but for Jesus himself.  

In verses 9 and 10, Jesus speaks poetically about walking during the day and not stumbling at night to tell them that he can see where his path will lead him.  Jesus knows that he is moving towards his death and resurrection and Jesus knows he is moving towards Lazarus’s death and resurrection, and Jesus had told the disciples this, which is why Thomas, in verse 16 says, 

“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Thomas, at least, is willing to believe that Jesus is set on a path towards death, but he does not yet see the possibility of resurrection.

If you live long enough, everyone encounters these moments in life where we recognize that the path we are on is a dead end.

Sometimes we’re on that dead end path for all the right reasons.

And

Sometimes it’s just a stupid dead end – the result of circumstances beyond our control or a series of unfortunate choices.

And sometimes there is no getting over it, no getting around it, and no getting away from it.

Sometimes “through it” is the only way.

I mean, sometimes we can and should walk away.

We as individuals don’t have to have every argument.

We as a country don’t have to fight every war.

But sometimes, sometimes we are just too far down an increasingly narrowing path of options that is leading us inexorably towards a dead end.

Or at least it may look like a dead end to us.

When a relationship ends.

When a job or a career ends.

When things don’t work out as we planned.

When a church dwindles down to a handful of members.

When a nation divides, or forms of government change.

It can feel like the end of the world.

But God is always making things new.

God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

And sometimes one thing has to end in order for a new thing to come into being.

Jesus, by waiting a few days to let Lazarus die and Mary and Martha grieve – gave them time to imagine their lives differently, before Jesus resurrected a new life for Lazarus, Mary and Martha.  Nothing can be the same after you go through something like that.

And we need that time.

We need that time to accept and grieve what we have lost and to become ready for what is coming.

We can’t rush through the process.

Church,  I admit that I am impatient!

I want to leap straight from what’s no longer working to resurrection day!

I want to skip the work of grief and acceptance and just go from one good thing to the next good thing and the next good thing and the next good thing.

But that’s not how life works.

That’s not how *we* work.

We get attached to things while they’re good.

We think, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and sometimes we willfully ignore that it’s been broke for a while.

Just like the church got attached to the mid-twentieth-century way of doing things because it worked really well for a long time.

So we pretended that it was still working well, long after that way of doing church had stopped working.  Long after it was no longer 1958 outside, we kept pretending that it was 1958 inside the church and wondered why people from 1990, and 2005, and 2016, weren’t coming in.

For many churches, COVID-19 was the dead end of the mid-century road.

And we prayed!  God, can’t you see that your church is dying?  Do something Jesus!  Save us from ourselves!

And Jesus did.  Jesus waited for Lazarus to die.

So that we would come to this point, where we have grieved and struggled and come to accept that what was, can no longer be.

So that we would be willing to accept our resurrection into affordable housing and ministry with people who never would have been welcome in this church in 1958.

It’s hard letting go of something that seemed so good at the time… at least for some of us.

And it’s still hard.

I still find myself saying to God, like Mary and Martha,  “Lord, if only you had shown up sooner!”

Lord, if only we could have done this 10 years ago, or 20 years ago we would have a lot more hands on deck!

Lord if only our friends could have lived to see this day…

Lord, if only we could skip the messy parts of life and move from strength to strength, instead of having to learn everything the hard way!

But life doesn’t seem to work that way.

*We* don’t seem to work that way.

So when it feels like the end of the world, remember that our God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

Our individual lives and our corporate life go through seasons of falling apart and coming back together.

But God has not yet let everything fall apart and stay fallen apart.

God will bring order to this chaos.

Peace to this conflict.

Life out of this season of death.

God is a God of premeditated resurrection.

John 9:1-13; 30-41  NRSVUE

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

 

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

 

30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

 

35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

You may have noticed that the reading jumps from verse 13 to verse 30 – you’re welcome!

This is a long story so I’m going to dig right in.

Starting in verse 1,  Jesus and a collection of disciples are somewhere near Jerusalem, maybe East of the city.  In chapter 8 Jesus was at the Mount of Olives, which is east of the city so they seem to be traveling towards Jerusalem.

As they’re walking, they see a blind man. 

And the disciples do something kinda rude.

Rather than talking *to* the man, like a normal person, the disciples start talking *about* the man who is blind – using him as a prop for a theological discussion about the cause of disability.

“Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.”

To us, with our access to medical science, this seems like a dumb question.  Blindness is not caused by sin, it’s caused by diseases and genetic disorders.

But science hadn’t been invented yet, and people like to know why.

When faced with a serious diagnosis, “why” is often the first question we ask.  

Why did this happen?

Why did this happen to me?

So the disciples, while definitely being rude, were asking the same question we all ask when facing a life-altering diagnosis.

“Why did this happen?

The unspoken question behind the way being,

“How do I prevent this bad thing from happening to me?”

In a prescientific world, the answer to most why questions was God.

If something bad happened – you must have made God mad.

If something good happened – you must have pleased God.

This world view was not unique to the Hebrew people – it was pretty much how everyone thought before science.

The Romans were mad at the Jews because they didn’t worship the Roman gods because the Romans were afraid that a lack of worship would make the gods angry.  If the gods became angry, then bad things would happen.

So the disciples are not being exceptionally stupid when they ask who sinned to make the man blind.  They’re actually asking a very reasonable theological question for the time period.

A question we still ask, even though we, more or less, have a scientific understanding of the world.

I mean,  when something bad happens we still ask:

Why did this happen?

Why did this happen to me?

And…

“How do I prevent this bad thing from happening to me?”

We just ask our doctor, or some other expert, instead of a priest.

But there’s still a whisper of the old question of whose sin caused this bad thing to happen within our modern why.

We’ve mostly gotten better about blaming people for getting sick, but our first impulse on hearing that someone is sick is still to give advice —  Have you tried this?  Have you done that?  Did you call your doctor?

But the less we understand the bad things that happen to people the more likely we are to go looking for some kind of sin.  Science has taught us that addiction is a disease, but because we don’t fully understand how to prevent addiction or fully understand how to successfully treat addiction, our why questions have a tendency to drift towards blame.  We ask the same question:

“Was it this person’s parents who sinned or was it this person who sinned that led to this addiction?”

But we ask it in the form of were this person’s parents bad and that led to addiction or did the person make bad choices.

And when people are deep within the disease of addiction and not really capable of utilizing help – we often blame them for the sin of “choosing” their addiction.

We seem to entirely forget that addiction is a disease and revert to the concept of moral failure aka sin.  Because if we can blame someone then we are in control.

The same can be said for many other social ills that we don’t fully understand.

People with mental health diagnosis do not choose to have a mental illness, and yet they are often shamed for not magically figuring out how to get better from illnesses that we don’t have good treatments for.

People who have experienced trauma are expected to just “get over it,” as if they are choosing to live with post traumatic stress!  Often because we would rather blame the victims than acknowledge the systemic sins of a culture that allows abusers to get away with it.

People who are poor are blamed for their own poverty – as if most poor people throughout this country and throughout the world don’t work 3 times as hard to get a fraction of what the billionaire class makes off of their labor and the price gouging of the basic necessities of life.

And still people ask,

Was it their parents who sinned against Mamon and made them poor?

Or is it their own fault that they are poor?  I mean, they could give up avocado toast and lattes.

We ask these questions, not because we are fundamentally bad people, but because we are afraid.

We are afraid of bad things happening to us.

And we think that If there is a reason why bad things happen…

Then maybe there is something we can do to prevent that bad thing from happening to us.

We have this backwards hope that if we can just do everything right nothing bad will happen.

If I eat healthy, exercise, avoid addictive substances, get an education, work hard, save money, invest smartly, go to therapy, take vitamins, limit screen time, micro-dose, focus on macros, meditate, be responsible, give up coffee and avocado toast, have the right friends, network….

…and the list goes on and on and on of things to do or not do.

Until we are back to the old superstition of who made the gods angry by failing to sacrifice…what?

Every last bit of joy and basic humanity?

In order to avoid sinning, so that we can avoid bad things happening to us?

Tell us who sinned, Jesus, so that we can protect ourselves by avoiding that sin.

Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 3.

Who sinned?

This is not a trick question.

I do want you to answer, out loud.

Yeah.  Nobody sinned.

Nobody sinned!

God had a bigger plan and this man’s healing is part of that plan.

Now I don’t think that is true of all bad things.

I don’t think that God is causing bad things to happen on a regular basis just to demonstrate God’s power.  

I’ve studied the theological question of, why do bad things happen, quite a lot, and honestly, there are a lot of reasons why bad things happen and sometimes there’s no reason at all.  

Stuff happens.

-Sometimes we do bad things.

-Sometimes somebody else does bad things and their sins cause other people suffering.

-Sometimes bad actions snowball into worse things.

-Sometimes things we don’t enjoy aren’t necessarily bad, just natural functions of life.

-Sometimes life and death and everything in between are a mystery.

God knows.

And I’m willing to trust that God is good.

Even when I don’t understand.

So Jesus healed the man and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is in SE Jerusalem – a busy place that put the man into the path of the Pharisees.

In verses 15 – 29, the Pharisees interrogate the formerly blind man, because they suspect that it’s Jesus and they don’t like Jesus – because Jesus is interrupting their whole protection racket of avoiding all sin in order to prevent bad things from happening.  

But when we pick up the story again in verse 30,  the formerly blind man isn’t having it – because he can see the evidence of God’s power and compassion with his own eyes!

So the Pharisees drive the healed man out of the city because he refuses to not believe his eyes.

In verse 35, Jesus introduces himself to the healed man and explains to him that some people can’t see the truth and some people don’t want to see the truth.

Bible editors often title this section, “Spiritual Blindness,” just in case we might be trying to take it too literally.

In verses 40-41 there are some Pharisees being snarky –  “surely we are not blind!”

But Jesus – Jesus spoke up when people who should know better were being mean.

Jesus called people out for their sins.

And in this story, it’s not the Blind man or his parents who sinned,

It’s the Pharisees who sinned. 

Their sin is still a popular sin today.

The sin of increasing the suffering of marginalized by blaming the marginalized for their own suffering.

The sin of twisting and weaponizing the good advice of scripture in order to shift the blame from the real causes of suffering to those who are hurting.

We all long to be safe.

We all want to have enough.

We all enjoy having a little more than enough, to make life more fun.

This is why we want to know who sinned – to try to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

But don’t be deceived.

Life isn’t safe.

There is no perfect combination of choices that will lead to an ideal life.

Suffering happens.

Whether we deserve it or not.

Good things happen too.

Whether we deserve it or not.

Jesus didn’t lead with blame, Jesus led with grace.

So let’s live with compassion.

Compassion for yourself and compassion for others.

The Kingdom of God is like Star Trek…or rather, Star Trek is like the Kingdom of God.

I just spent a glorious 7 days with 3000 hard core Star Trek fans from all over the world on Star Trek the Cruise.  This was our third year on the cruise and we’re already booked for next year, because Star Trek is the closest thing to the kingdom of God on earth, besides our Methodist Camps!

I say that because, like our Camps,  Star Trek doesn’t just tolerate infinite diversity in infinite combinations – Star Trek celebrates diversity.  And not just the diversity of intergalactic aliens, but the diversity of life:

Beings of all shapes, sizes, ability levels, mental health levels, identities, genders, and orientations.  Beings of all cultures, multiple cultures, and a plurality of religions, belief systems, and un-religious folks.  The Star Trek universe is a utopian answer to the question:  “What if we could all be accepted, valued, and appreciated for who we are, and supported in becoming our best selves?”

And the Star Trek the Cruise reflects that utopian vision.

There are people on the cruise of all shapes, sizes, ability levels, mental health states, and neuro-diversities – like folks on the autism spectrum.  There are people of all the identities, orientations, genders, religions, and cultures.  And we all get along.

Not by assimilating, but by respecting and valuing one another’s differences.  

Not by saying, I’m right and you’re wrong, but by finding that third way where we can be together without giving up what makes us distinctively ourselves.

And that’s what Jesus was talking about in today’s reading.  A world where a Jew and a Samaritan can find common ground “in spirit and in truth.”  A world where we work to better ourselves and the lives of everyone, rather than working to accumulate material things.

In verse 5, Jesus is resting by Jacob’s well in the heat of the day while the disciples are picking up some take out so they can take a little break from the crowds.

At the time that the gospel of John was written in ancient Syria, just mentioning Jacob, Joseph and Samaria delivered a lot of background information that most of us today don’t pick up on, so here’s the background.

Jacob, son of Issac, son of Abraham, was renamed Israel, which means, “one who wrestles with God,” and is considered the Official Jewish ancestor and founder of Israel.  Joseph, son of Jacob, is the Joseph of technicolor dream coat fame, so Samaria is basically northern Israel. 

But, before there was an Israel… 

Before there was a Temple… 

Abraham, Issac and Jacob built altars and pillars on hills as places of sacrifice and worship.  That’s how ancient Hebrews worshiped before they went to Egypt, and before the Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon.

 When Israel split into 2 kingdoms,  Israel and Judea – the Temple was in Judea and not accessible to Israel, so the people of Israel slash Samaria went back to worshiping and sacrificing on the hills where Abraham, Issac and Jacob worshiped.

The Judeans, which is where we get the modern term, Jews, worshiped at the Temple and looked down their noses at the Samaritans for not being “proper Jews.”  

To put this into a present day analogy – the Samaritans had old fashioned, low tech, worship styles, and the Judeans had a fancy building with lights and smoke machines.

It was the first century version of the worship wars. 

And the Temple in Jerusalem was the fancy mega church of its time, who labeled the old style worship as “not a real church.”

So a Samaritan woman comes to the well at noon… 

…this also requires some backstory – because normally women came to the well in the morning to get their water for the day, greet their neighbors and share the local news.  Noon was the hottest part of the day, so nobody wanted to be out doing heavy chores like fetching water.  So the fact that this woman came to the well at noon, means that she was trying to avoid people.

That’s a lot of backstory for 3 verses!

We’ve got two different kinds of Jews separated by worship style and a woman separated from her community.

So when Jesus asks her for a drink, she’s totally surprised because people from the Mega-Temple don’t even acknowledge the existence of the little old fashioned Israelites/Samaritains.

But here’s Jesus, asking her for a drink of water and having a conversation with her.  Of course, Jesus had to make it weird, talking about living water gushing up to eternal life, but Jesus knew that this woman’s soul was thirsty.

Jesus knew that she was out drawing water in the heat of the day because she was being shamed by her community for having had a string of bad relationships.  She had 5 previous relationships with men who failed to be good husbands, and the current man wasn’t husband material either.  

Being a Samaritan and a woman with a reputation usually meant that people from the Mega-Temple *and* people from the old fashioned church wanted nothing to do with you, but Jesus doesn’t leave, so she asks him her big theological question.  This is in verses 19 and 20:

“Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 

And verses 21-24 is where Jesus goes Star Trek on her, like the Samaritans are some lost-in-space human colony whom he is trying to convince to join the United Federation of Planets.

Jesus tells her that it’s not about where you worship.

It’s not about how you worship.

It’s about being centered in Spirit and truth – so that we worship God not in designated holy places, but that we ourselves practice holiness wherever we are.

But even in the Federation… even among the disciples, people cling to old prejudices.

The disciples grew up in the Mega-Temple side of Judaism, and this woman out in the middle of the day was a pretty suspicious character, but they knew by now not to try to tell Jesus to stop being weird  – because that never works!

So they tried to distract Jesus with lunch.

But the woman at the well, had run to the city to tell everyone about Jesus, so Jesus knew that the most important thing in that moment was not that his shawarma was getting cold, but that people who had been separated from God and the larger Jewish community by differences in culture and customs, and by shaming,  were discovering that they were able to be a part of God’s Beloved Community by moving past the details that separate us by embracing that values that unite us.

Values like compassion and forgiveness.

Values like respect for the diversity of God’s creation.

Values like caring for the most vulnerable among us.

The Kingdom of God is like a woman who leaves her jar by the well and runs to tell all her neighbors, who don’t even like her, that God is doing something good here among us.

The Kingdom of God is like an episode of Star Fleet Academy, where a young man from the warrior race of Klingons, has a calling to become a doctor instead of a warrior.  So he leaves his family and his home and joins Starfleet Academy and discovers that there is honor in battling to save lives.

The kingdom of God is you and I, just showing up each day in spirit and in truth to worship God by following our calling to do all the Good we can.

Matthew 6:1-15 NRSVUE

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “Pray, then, in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

    may your name be revered as holy.

10     May your kingdom come.

    May your will be done

        on earth as it is in heaven.

11     Give us today our daily bread.

12     And forgive us our debts,

        as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13     And do not bring us to the time of trial,

        but rescue us from the evil one.

14 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We’re still in the Sermon on the Mount.  

We started with learning that being Blessed is about being a blessing to others.

Then we talked about what it means to be Salty, Lit and Righteous – that Jesus does call us to stand up for our faith.

But in this passage Jesus has a few words about how we shouldn’t practice our faith in public.

And it might seem kinda confusing because in chapter 5, Jesus is telling us that we’re blessed when we get persecuted like the prophets for standing up for God (Mt 5:11-12)

And then Jesus tells us not to hide our light under a bushel basket, NO!

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine! (Mt 5:14-16)

But now we’re not supposed to practice our righteousness before others?

It sounds contradictory, if we aren’t paying attention to the subtle, but major differences.

Verse one of today’s reading lays out the important difference of intent between 

Performative Faith

And

Sincerely following Jesus.

Look at verse 1 where it says:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them.

If you’ve got a pencil or pen or lipstick or eyeliners on you – underline the words:

“In order to be seen by them.”

“In order to be seen by them.”

“In order to be seen by them.”

There are 2 versions of Christianity in this country right now.

Fans and Followers.

Fans of Jesus — are the people who go to Churches who sing songs about how much they love God, and have fabulous youth and children’s programs, and small groups, and all the stuff that people like… but pretty much ignore the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbors.

This is how I was raised.  I was raised to be a fan.

I was taught that I needed to go to church every week.

Say the right prayers, do the right rituals.

Dress with modest femininity.

Be polite and obedient, and nice.

And then leave church stuff at church.

I was supposed to love God, but not necessarily love my neighbors, because, well, that’s just not the way the world works.

I was taught that “the Lord helps those who help themselves,” as if it’s in the Bible, which it is not.

For Fans of Jesus, Church is about respectability and Western Culture.

For Fans, faith is kinda like a religion badge that helps you gain entrance into the “right circles”

We hear this performative faith from politicians all the time:

• Quoting the Bible out of context in order to be seen by the crowd as having Christian credibility.
• Showing up at a national day of prayer in order to be seen by the crowd.
• Preaching White Nationalism, and “our European Heritage” and calling it Christianity.

And we see this performative faith in Churches and Pastors whose only metric for faithfulness is the number of converts who attend their church.  Disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples to make more disciples, as if the numbers game is all that matters to God.

Fans or followers….

Followers of Jesus — are often people who go to Churches who may not have the most fabulous worship experience or the best ever children and youth programs, but who are actively working to love our neighbors, care for the least of these, welcome the stranger, and include the outcasts — because that’s what Jesus taught.

And ironically, I learned to be a follower instead of a fan, at a large, pentecostal, Assemblies of God church,with a good worship experience,  a great youth program that actively evangelized me, and supported a ministry to the unhoused…however, they weren’t great at including the outcasts, but they did include me.

And in that offshoot of Methodism, Assemblies of God are an offshoot of the Methodist Holiness movement…in that offshoot of Methodism, I experienced Sanctification during an altar call.

They asked everyone who was ready to commit their lives to Jesus to raise their hand and I raised my hand.

Sanctification is the 3rd type of Methodist Grace.

Methodists name 3 kinds of Grace:

1. Prevenient Grace – pre, as in before we love God, God loves us.
2. Justifying Grace – Now we know we are loved and “justified” – is old language for forgiven and accepted.
3. Sanctifying Grace – Now that we know that God loves us – All of us – we realize that we are called to love our neighbors.

I already knew that God loved me and I loved God — I was already a fan of Jesus!

But in that altar call moment I felt Jesus asking me to follow him.  To change how I lived outside of church.

And at first I thought that meant that I needed to be a better fan-girl!

• Wear more Christian T-shirts
• Listen to more Christian music.
• Go to church several times a week…because once a week attendance was for those who weren’t fully committed!
• And….Study the Bible.

That last one got me.  

The more I studied the Bible, the more I started to realize that there was more to being a disciple than making more disciples.

That God has things to say about how we use money.

God has things to say about justice and mercy for the poor and the oppressed.

That when Jesus encountered the gay Centurion with the sick body servant (Doulas Pita is the Greek – which was gay coded language at the time) Jesus was totally ready to hop on over to their house and heal – even though their household was not Jewish, was gay, and was Roman!  (Matt 8:5-13)

That God called the Prophets to criticize bad leaders for their lack of mercy towards the poor over and over again!

The more I studied the Bible, the more I began to realize that it is not enough to make disciples – we must also teach them to obey everything that Jesus taught us. (Matthew 28:19-20).

It was when I started to care about justice and mercy for the last and the least that I realized that being a fan of Jesus makes good photo-ops.

Being a follower of Jesus means not only getting out of our own comfort zones – but acting outside of the comfort zone of our culture.

And we need to pray in private and pray that God’s will be done, because sometimes God calls us to Follow Jesus into situations where we don’t know how to do this yet.  And it’s just not dignified to be praying – are you sure God???  Surely there’s someone better prepared to do this!

And we need to pray for our daily bread because those who do justice, practice mercy and walk humbly with God seldom get rich doing it!

And we need forgiveness for ourselves and others because following Jesus is counter cultural and people are going to criticize us.

You may notice that the last line of the traditional Lord’s prayer isn’t there – “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever”  isn’t in the Bible. 

I didn’t end the passage too soon.  

It just isn’t in there.

Verse 16 reads, 

16 “And whenever you fast, do not look somber, like the hypocrites, for they mark their faces to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

Jesus didn’t tell us to give God elaborate fan-girl praise – Look at verse 7.

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words”

I don’t think that going to church is bad – obviously I’m here.

I just don’t think going to church makes you a follower of Jesus anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.

I don’t think that singing is bad – I think we need to sing, as a form of meditation and prayer to realign our hearts and minds towards God.

And I’m totally in favor of quality church programs for all ages.

I’m also very in favor of evangelism – and – once they’re here, let’s teach people what Jesus actually taught!

But none of these things are an end unto themselves.

They are means for the goal of following Jesus.

Following Jesus so that God’s will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-20 NRSVUE

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.\

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Last week we were reading the first half of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-12, where we realized that Jesus’ definition of Blessed does not mean that we are enjoying the good things in life.  Jesus’ definition of Blessed is the counter-cultural call to be a blessing to others and God’s promise that Justice will eventually arrive.

There’s no change of venue, there’s no Jesus took a break and then started teaching again.

Jesus says, 11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

And then Jesus says

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

Being reviled and persecuted for speaking up like the prophets is the context for, “you are the salt of the earth.”  

That changes it a little bit doesn’t it.

I admit that when I was taught these verses about salt and light, I was not about it in context!

I was taught that we are supposed to be noticeably Christian.

• I was taught that I was supposed to be wearing a cross all the time.
• Wearing Christian T-shirts
• Dress with modest femininity.
• I was taught that I shouldn’t smoke or chew or go with the boys that do.
• No cussing.
• I was taught that a good Christian girl is supposed to be meek and sweet and nice.
• I was taught to be unquestioningly obedient to those in authority.
• I was taught that I was supposed to initiate awkward conversations about Jesus… I think that’s the only one I’m still doing, no, wait, I still wear Christian T-shirts, but they’re a little different than the ones I used to wear!

I do bring Jesus up in conversation all the time. 

And I confess that I can be a little salty about it.

Salty – as the young people use it these days – means to speak with passion, sarcasm, or bitterness, as a result of being angry or upset; or feeling out of place or under attack.

The Prophets were often salty.

When Amos said, in chapter 5:21-24

21 I hate, I despise your festivals,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them,

and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals

I will not look upon.

23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;

I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

24 But let justice roll down like water

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

That was salty.

Here’s some salt from Jeremiah 21:12

12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
anyone who has been robbed,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire
and burn, with no one to quench it,
because of their evil doings.

Have you ever noticed how salty Spirit gets in some of the Psalms?

Here’s Psalm 109:7-16

7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty;

let his prayer be counted as sin.

8 May his days be few;

may another seize his position.

9 May his children be orphans

and his wife a widow.

10 May his children wander about and beg;

may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.

11 May the creditor seize all that he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.

12 May there be no one to do him a kindness

nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.

13 May his posterity be cut off;

may his name be blotted out in the second generation.

14 May the iniquity of his father be remembered before the Lord,

and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord continually,

and may his memory be cut off from the earth.

16 For he did not remember to show kindness

but pursued the poor and needy

and the brokenhearted to their death.

Whew!  That’s not just salty – that’s spicy!

But many of us were taught that all that Old Testament stuff doesn’t matter anymore since Jesus came, so here’s Jesus being salty in Matthew 23:27

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of corruption and rot.”

God – Creator, Christ and Spirit are salty when it comes to violations of God’s one simple rule of LOVE –

Moving on to verse 14 – still in the context of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus is calling us to be Lit.

Lit, according to the Urban dictionary means

lit

1. A term used to describe something that is cool and exciting, or just generally something you would want to experience.

In verse 16 it reads, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”

The idea being that our light is the good news of God’s Love for ALL people, which should shine through our words and actions.

The Good News that Jesus taught is something cool and exciting, and just generally something you would want to experience, right?

Right??

Right???

I was taught that this meant that I was supposed to invite people to church… and I still think that’s a good idea…to invite people to church.

But I also think that Jesus is calling us to be lit everywhere we go.

That we are called to shine the light of compassion by serving at Family Promise.

That we are called to shine the light of love by building affordable housing.

That we are called to let it shine all around the neighborhood as we go about our lives by how we treat others and by what we are willing to stand up for.

Verses 17-20 are troubling to a lot of people, because they wonder what “not abolishing the law but fulfilling it” means.

The question being – did Jesus just say that we need to follow all the rules in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus???  

Including Leviticus 15:20 where it says that men are not supposed to sit in chairs where a menstruating woman has sat? Because if so, my husband and son are going to be doing a lot of standing because there’s 3 people with uteruses in my house!

No.  I don’t think so.

Jesus already answered this question in Matthew 22:37-40

37 ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

 Love is the fulfillment of the law.

 Love is the fulfillment of the law.

Because the Pharisees were actively trying to follow the letter of the law.

Every little rule and every big one.

They were honestly and sincerely trying.

But they got so caught up in the rules that they forgot that the purpose of the rules is love.

Later on in this same sermon, because in Matthew the sermon on the Mount goes on through chapter 7!

Right after this reading Jesus goes into a series of interpretations of the law that are all formatted, “You have heard it said…something something… but I say… something else”

In Matthew 5:43 Jesus directly address the law of Love

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

I don’t hear Jesus telling us that we need to obey every single little Kosher law.

I hear Jesus telling us that to be truly Righteous, we need to practice neighbor-love from the inside out.

We need to pray for those who persecute us so that we can keep fighting FOR what we love, instead of fighting AGAINST what we hate.

We need to pray for those who persecute us so that we can keep fighting FOR what we LOVE, instead of fighting AGAINST what we hate.

We’re called to be Salty – to speak truth to power.

We’re called to be Lit – to shine the good news all around the neighborhood.

We’re called to be Righteous – to fight FOR what we LOVE. Not fight against what we hate.

righteous

Containing the best possible attributable qualities.

A belief in love

Matthew 5:1-12 NRSVUE

1.When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Last week we talked about the Nicene creeds utter lack of teachings of Jesus

This week we are looking at what John Wesley considered to be the foundational teaching of Jesus – everything we should be doing – our Method for Christian Living.

Tuesday I signed up for the 8am shift at the Federal Courthouse to do clergy accompaniment alongside the Legal Observers.  I needed to leave at 7:15am in order to get there and park before my shift, so of course I hit the snooze button 4 times and stumbled out of bed at 7:05 and made it to my car at about 7:22am.  

Morning People, I salute you!  I am not one of you.

After getting turned around exiting the parking garage, I managed to arrive at my post near the entrance of the Federal Courthouse at 8:01, where Pastor Kris was already stationed and our Legal Observer showed up one minute later.  Us clergy wait outside to walk people to their cars or to make photo copies of their asylum papers – Immigration court gives you 1 copy of your papers, but you need to turn in 1 copy upstairs, turn in another copy downstairs and keep another stamped copy on you at all times.   So we do a lot of photocopy runs.

It was a peaceful shift, but something odd happened… and kept happening.

The staff kept thanking us for being there.

Federal employee after Federal employee, wearing their badges over their coats, carrying their insulated lunch bags, coming in for the day, saying, “thank you for being here.”  “Thank you for being here.”

And the Army recruiters – there’s a recruiting office inside the Federal Courthouse – dressed in their fatigues, who usually eye us suspiciously, all greeted us with a friendly good morning.

That was a little odd, but it was a pretty typical day.  Immigrants with brightly colored folders walking up to the door, for us to greet and ask if they have a lawyer, and tell them about PIRC and ECO if they don’t.

Then the Legal Observer messaged us, that the family she was talking to said that Court was canceled today – and their hearing was rescheduled for 2 years from now.

Our first thought, was, “oh no, what has the administration done now?”

But then somebody from the court came out and made an announcement in Spanish.  Our Legal Observer that day doesn’t speak a whole lot of Spanish, but managed to find out that the court clerk was sick, so court was canceled.  There’s been so much defunding of Federal staff, that if one person gets sick, it shuts the whole operation down.

Then the Army recruiter came out and offered a chair for our Legal Observer to sit in, because they make the Observers stand in the hallway – they won’t let them into the courtroom anymore — new policy.  But since court was canceled, we were going to leave.

Remember how last week I said,

It’s hard to maintain a dictatorship when the people believe everyone has value in the eyes of God!

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Mt 5:9) is apparently catching on at the Courthouse.

Last week we were talking about the Nicene Creed – and noticing that it does not contain any of the teachings of Jesus.

Today we are delving into one of Jesus’ most significant teachings, sometimes called The Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus stepped up onto a little hill so the crowd could see him better.  In the gospel of Luke it’s The Sermon on the Plain, but regardless of the elevation, it’s a very counter-cultural teaching in pretty much every time and place.

We don’t think of it as counter-cultural because we’re used to it.

Many of us learned about the Bee-Attitudes in Sunday School class while making terrifyingly large bees out of pipe cleaners and craft paper, where we focused on the Blessings.

But look who Jesus is calling Blessed…

Starting at verse 3 — you can follow along in your bulletin…

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So… is Jesus saying that you’re blessed if you’re depressed?

The gospel of Luke leaves out “in spirit,” (LK 6.20) so…. Is Jesus saying, God loves poor people???

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Luke reads, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” (Lk 6:21)

So…. is Jesus saying that grief is a blessing?  I think, perhaps Jesus is saying that those who are suffering now, are beloved of God and that their suffering will not last forever.

Verse 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

In a culture that tells us to “lean in” and “promote your personal brand,” humility doesn’t seem likely to deliver the wealth of the whole earth.  But Jesus seems to place a high value on walking humbly with God.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Luke 6:21 reads:  “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”

So…kinda different messages, but both are counter cultural.

Luke promises the blessing of fullness to those who are currently food insecure.

Matthew tells those of us longing for justice that the arc of history may be long, but God is bending it towards justice.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

Blessed are the merciful is very different from the current message that if people would just mind their own business and stay home, they’ll be safe.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The phrase, ‘pure in heart,” reminds me of people with Downs syndrome, and autism, and children, who are so very vulnerable.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

This one seems less counter cultural – I mean, there’s a Nobel peace prize.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I can tell you that tear gas does not feel like a blessing, but standing up for what’s right is Kingdom of God work.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Are you sure Jesus?  Being reviled, persecuted, threatened and having your name drug through the mud, does not feel like a blessing, to me.

And maybe that’s because our definition of what it means to be blessed in this culture, is defined by what is pleasant, comfortable and attractive.

When we say, “I’m so blessed,” we’re usually referring to having the privilege of going on vacation, having a nice house, a solid income, a stable family.

We don’t generally refer to poverty, grief, and persecution as a blessing.

So maybe the problem is our definition of blessing.

Maybe God is thinking not of what is a blessing to us, but of what is a blessing to others.

Mary mother of Jesus, is called Blessed.  Her life was not easy, but she was a blessing to others.

And in verse 12, the  author of Matthew brings up the Prophets.

The life of a prophet was often kinda terrible, listening to God, speaking up for God, and having kings try to kill you for your trouble is not what we would call, “too blessed to be stressed,” but their lives have definitely been a blessing for others.

Jesus’ calling to,”Take up your cross and follow me,”

Found in, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, and Luke 9:23

Isn’t a calling to a life of comfort, wealth, and popularity.

It’s a calling to be a blessing to others.

I was watching videos of animals using word buttons while doing dishes the other night, when a video came up from an official government account, where some blond woman was addressing herself to Christians.  Telling us that God expects us to be on the side of law and order, and that we should stay out of the way of the legal actions of this administration.

My hands were wet with dirty dish water, so it played through twice before I could stop it.

Listening to her weaponize Romans 13:1 – which didn’t work out so well for the authentic Paul, who wrote it – Rome executed him.

Listening to her weaponize Romans 13:1 and completely ignore everything that Jesus taught about how we are to treat the stranger among us…  and everything that Jesus taught us about standing up for what’s right, in the name of Law and Order, was dissonant.

Because laws are not always just.

Slavery was legal.  Helping people escape was illegal.

The Holocaust was legal, hiding Anne Frank’s family was illegal.

Resisting the gestapo was illegal.

Protesting was illegal.

And now they are trying to tell us that offering help to people who have been injured while practicing their first amendment right to peaceful protest is un-Christian and illegal.  They’re dragging Alex Pretti’s and Renee Good’s names through the mud and telling us to not believe our own eyes.

Friends, we’re not called to stay home and stay safe.

We’re not called to be nice and avoid talking about politics.

We’re called to be a blessing in such a way that we are inconvenient to those trying to do harm.

So keep boycotting.

Keep emailing and calling our legislators.

Keep annoying the heck out of your friends and family members.

Keep showing up and volunteering and donating where you can.

Keep singing, laughing, hoping and dreaming.

Keep being the Church — you are a wonderful church, and I’m so grateful to be in ministry with you!

You are a blessing.

We are a blessing in a world that desperately needs us to follow Jesus.

Matthew 3:13-17 NRSVUE

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 

15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 

16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Last week we were reading the passage right before this, that introduces John the Baptist, a passage we usually read before Christmas, even though it happens at the beginning of Jesus’ adult ministry and here in verse 13 Jesus enters the chat.

John is out offering a traditional Jewish ritual bath in the water of the Jordan – a mikvah – a ritual of spiritual and physical cleansing and transition.  And John is being John, saying the kind of things that got him beheaded by Herod, son of Herod.  Calling out the brood of vipers who had taken over the government of Judea and sold them out to the Romans.

When Jesus walks up to him and before Jesus can even say, “Hi cousin John,”  John, who has known Jesus since before he was born…and still thinks Jesus is cool…

Do any of you have relationships with your cousins like that?

My cousins were my favorite people when I was growing up.  

The Nicene Creed tells us that Jesus was fully human and fully God, so I like to think about Jesus’ human side sometimes.

So before Jesus can even say, “Hi cousin John,”  John is already talking about Jesus being too cool for school — or at least too important for John to perform a ritual bath on.

But Jesus knows that it’s his time.

The time of transition from just being Mary and Joseph’s kid to transitioning into the role of Messiah has come.

And Baptism is a ritual of transition.

Before we had the Nicene Creed – Before Christianity was a religion — back when The Way was still a movement within Judaism, Baptism was still practiced like John did it – a Mikvah in running water or clean water.  A ritual of spiritual and physical cleansing and transition.

When a first century or second century Christian was Baptized, they changed their life.

Early Christianity was 100% nonviolent, so if a Roman Soldier became a Christian, he quit the Legion and Baptism was the ritual of transition from a life of violence to a life of peace.

And this was why there were so many arguments about circumcision and head coverings for women between the Apostle Paul and the Jewish Christians.  The question being – at Baptism what was a gentile believer transitioning into – were they becoming Jewish and therefore subject to all the Laws of Moses and the laws of the Patriarchs who wrote Deuteronomy and Leviticus, including circumcision?

And because Christianity was a dispersed movement – the original title of Bishop meant the leader of the Christian Community in a particular geographic area – each Episcopal Area, if you will, had their own creed, their own local worship customs, their own gospels, their own collection of letters from the Apostles, and their own Baptismal customs.

So when Roman Emperor Constantine first, decided to make Christianity the official religion of Rome he didn’t like a few of things.

1.  Constantine didn’t like that there wasn’t ONE unified version of Christianity.
2. He didn’t like the emphasis on peace. It was not at all useful for his wars of conquest to have his soldiers quitting when they converted!
3. He didn’t like the messy,  bottom up, good news for the poor, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, feminist, share economy, we are all one in Christ Jesus – “Wokeness” of Christianity.  It’s hard to maintain a dictatorship when the people believe everyone has value in the eyes of God!

So Constantine gathered as many Bishops as he could, and locked them in a room (you think I’m kidding — seriously — he locked them in!) and wouldn’t let them out until they came up with, a statement on  ONE definition of God – that’s what the Nicene Creed is.  An attempt to define God.

Let’s read through it together.  You can follow along on the screen or in the Hymnal it’s #880 in the back:  Follow along and be thinking about what you notice about the Nicene Creed.

Nicene Creed 

We believe in one God,
the Father, the almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
 With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

What do you notice about the Nicene Creed?

There are no wrong answers!

What I notice.  It’s 100% teachings about Jesus –  an attempt to define the substance of God.  An attempt to define Jesus – 

“begotten not made”

In the original Latin – the phrase “of one being with the Father,” actually reads, “of the same substance of the Father,”  There was a huge argument about whether Jesus was of similar substance as the Father or the same substance as the Father! 

What I notice the most is that the Nicene Creed contains precisely 0% of the teachings of Jesus.

There is no “good news for the poor,” in the Nicene Creed.

There is no “love your neighbor as yourself” in the Nicene Creed.

There is no “whatever you do for one of the least of these who are members of my family, you do to me,” in the Nicene Creed.

By focusing solely on trying to define the Mystery that is God, they entirely missed the point of the teachings of Jesus.

And the Nicene Creed waters down the transformational ritual of Baptism to just forgiveness of sins.

Did you know that Emperor Constantine refused to be baptized until he was on his death bed, because he wanted to save his one baptism to clean up all his sins right before death so that he could make sure he got into heaven?

As if it is the ritual bath that saves us, not God’s commitment to mercy.

As if God’s love is bought obedience to rituals.

Back to our Bible reading for today — in verses 16 and 17 John baptizes Jesus at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

In the gospel of Matthew in chapter 2 Jesus is a baby refugee in Egypt and in chapter 3 Jesus is grown.

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus hasn’t done anything yet.

No getting lost at the Temple.

No wedding at Cana.

No teenaged eye roll at Mary, “Mooooommmm, it isn’t my time yet”……

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus hasn’t done anything yet.

When the Spirit descends like a dove and the voice of the proudest Dad ever says, 

“That’s my son!  I love him sooo much, and I’m just sooo proud of him!”

I think God said it that way – Translators are so dry and stiff with their language!

This is the God that I experience in Baptism!

This is why Methodists baptize infants or people of any age.

Not because we think babies are sinful, but because there is nothing we need to do to earn God’s love.

You don’t need to earn baptism.

You don’t need to understand baptism.

You don’t need to be able to define your faith or recite creeds that contain nothing of the teachings of Jesus to be Baptized.

And you don’t  need to promise to be good for the rest of your life.

When I Baptize people, every time, every time, all I feel is the love of God, saying, “THIS is my Beloved and I’m so proud of them!”

And I’m about to start quoting our United Methodist Baptismal Vows, so you can turn to page 34 of the Hymnal if you want to fact check me.  Please do!  I love it when people fact check me!  It means you’re taking responsibility for the content of your own faith! Pages 34 and 35.

Baptism is a transition into Beloved Community.

A community where we promise to “surround one another with a community of love and forgiveness” (UMH p35)

A community where we commit ourselves to “reject the evil powers of this world” and “accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.” (UMH p34)

And then we recite the Apostle’s Creed, which is older than the Nicene Creed, but still does not include the key teachings of Jesus…

I mean how hard would it be to insert just one line about what Jesus did while he was here?

They could have stuffed it between birth and death, like

“Born of the Virgin Mary”
Taught us to love our neighbors,
“Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, died and was buried

Then we bless and pour clean warm water and it doesn’t matter if we dunk or pour or sprinkle, because Baptism isn’t about the ritual.  Baptism isn’t about what we do.  

It’s about how much God loves us.

I believe beyond believing, especially in times like this,  that we are most certainly called to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves – I mean, I bought the T-shirt!

But the most important thing is Love.

God’s unconditional love for every single sparrow and lily and human being, no matter who they are, no matter what we’ve done or left undone, is our WHY — for everything else.

So friends,  remember your baptism and remember that you are beloved, and you are beloved, and you are beloved, and so are they — all the people whom we are finding hard to love in this moment are still beloveds of God.

Which doesn’t mean that they aren’t also a brood of vipers who need to change their ways.

It just means that God still loves them.

Remember, in the midst of everything, we are God’s Beloved.

All of us.