Matthew 10:26-39 NRSVUE

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna). 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

 

32 “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

 

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

 

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

 

37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

 I told you last Sunday that I only know one thing about being a Christian right now.  That everything I’ve learned about being a Pastor and leading churches for the last 30 years no longer works since COVID.   

If you want to read the whole sermon, it’s on the Church website.

The only one thing that I know is:

My neighbor is the person who needs me to be a neighbor to them.

The person who is lonely, hungry, hopeless and harassed.

Because Jesus  “had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36)

Christ compels me to be a neighbor to the people who need me.

Clearly I cannot be a neighbor in the Biblical sense… in the tale of the Good Samaritan sense, where Jesus asks the young lawyer, who was a neighbor to the man who was left beaten by the roadside.

Quite frankly, there are too many people being left by the roadside right now, for one Pastor, one person, one church to help them all.  

I mean, the last point in time count I saw for SE Portland counted 2000 unhoused folks here in SE.

We can’t help them all.  But we can help the people whom God places in our path.   

And we do.  There’s a reason that I’m willing to go down to part time to stay here at Montavilla United Methodist. Church – you are good neighbors… in the Biblical sense!

But a funny thing happens when you decide to become a good neighbor.

Especially when you decide to become a good neighbor to “the hopeless and the harassed,” as Jesus described them.

The people who are doing the harassing, or benefiting from their hopelessness get mad.  And it’s not fun.

This is what Jesus is talking about in today’s reading.

So last week,  our reading was the story of Jesus sending the Apostles out 2 by 2 on their first mission without Jesus being right there with them.  They don’t know it yet, but Jesus is training them to be the Church without his physical presence.

After the initial directions from last week’s reading, Jesus just keeps talking, and talking, and talking.  And Jesus is STILL talking, still giving them directions… it’s a miracle that they remembered all those directions!  He goes on and on and on…  And Jesus is STILL talking when our reading for today starts with the instruction to have no fear.

And the reason Jesus says to have no fear is because in the previous 2 paragraphs… Jesus really talked A LOT!

…in the previous 2 paragraphs, in Verses 16 through 25, Jesus is telling them that helping the harassed and the hopeless is going to make people MAD.

Big mad.

Family members will turn on one another.

People will get arrested for speaking up for what’s right.

Some people will even be killed…

They’re going to call you names… like “Woke,” or “Demon-crat,” or “fake Christians.”

My Congresswoman, Maxine Dexter, who has attracted attention for trying to exercise her right as a member of congress to inspect ICE detention facilities.  The most common insult that I see for her, is that they call her a “man,” because she’s too busy trying to help people to wear makeup and skirts.

In verse 25 Jesus says, and I’m paraphrasing here…

Jesus says, “They called me Beelzebul, they’re going to call you worse names.”

So, have no fear of them.

Have no fear of them, Jesus?

So Jesus.  

You’re telling me, in Matthew 10, verses 21 and 22, that:

21 Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matt 10:21-22)

So, have no fear.

Now, I have a lot of faith.

But times like these scare me.

I don’t enjoy being called names, but I can handle it.

I’ve got my big girl pants on!

I don’t want to be arrested or killed, but I can’t live with myself, as a person of German ancestry, if I don’t stand up for those being kidnapped off the streets and placed in camps.

So have no fear… that’s a tall order, Jesus.

I can show up afraid.

I can speak up even when my voice shakes.

We’re willing to do things that we don’t know how to do yet, like build affordable housing!  Even though it’s scary.

But having no fear is next level stuff.

And honestly, I think what we fear the most is not arrest or knowing what to do or to say, or even death.

I think what we fear the most is loss of relationships.

I think what we fear the most is being perceived as mean or divisive.

*divisive* is a big word right now.

Because we Methodists are nice!

I used to say in my community organizing work,  “We’re Methodists, we play nice with everybody!”

And we are nice.

We’re nice enough to be kind and compassionate towards those who are harassed and hopeless.

But when we choose to be nice to those who are harassed and hopeless, the people who are doing the harassing, or benefiting from their hopelessness, or think that they will benefit, get mad.  

Even though nobody really benefits from oppression, not even the oppressors, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” as Jesus said in Mark 8:36.

And that brings us to verse 34 of today’s reading.  It’s in the middle of the reading in your bulletin.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” (Mt 10:34)

But Jesus, we totally think that you came to bring peace on earth and good will towards men!  We sing about that in Christmas carols!

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” (Mt 10:34)

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

I think that this is what we are most afraid of.

This is what we are most afraid of.

Pastors are far more afraid that their congregations will hate them, then we are of being arrested.

Family members are far more afraid of ruining Christmas than we are of being turned in to Department of Homeland Security by our brother-in-law.

We want to keep the peace, because we want peace for ourselves.

We want peace in our families, peace in our neighborhoods, peace in our churches, peace in our country.

But peace that is bought at the cost of turning a blind eye to suffering is not peace.

Protecting our lives and our lifestyle at the cost of the lives and living conditions of the very people whom Jesus commanded us to care for – the least of these – the immigrant (because the word translated as stranger means a person not of your country),  The least of these whom Jesus says we are to care for as if they are HIM are:

• The hungry and thirsty
• Immigrants
• Those in need of clothing
• The sick
• And the imprisoned.

According to Matthew 25:35-36

And the intent of that list is obviously that the Least of These are whomever is harassed and hopeless under whatever administration happens to be in power at the time.

So Christ also calls us to care about:

• Autistic people
• Trans people
• Pregnant people
• Farmers
• Unhoused people

And the list of those suffering right now goes on and on

And as I’ve said several times already.

When we care.  When we do something to help.

When we follow Jesus.

The people doing the harassing or who think they benefit from the hopelessness of the Least of These, get mad.

And the opinions of some of those people matter to us.  A lot.

Take a look at verse 37 – 39.

37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

This is hard folks.

This teaching is just plain hard.

But Jesus calls us to be divisive.

But, not out of hate for those whom we disagree with.

Jesus calls us to be divisive out of love for those who are harassed and hopeless.

Jesus calls us to love God and love whatever neighbors God puts in front of us to love, even when people call us names.

But don’t be distracted by their hate.

And when we get distracted, because we will get distracted, because it sucks when people we love, who claim to be fellow Christians, are calling us names.

Remember that the cross that Jesus asks us to take up is love.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  (Matt 11:28-30)

That’s in the next chapter.

So we’ll stop here for today.

Matthew 9:35 – 10:8 NRSVUE

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

 

10 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

 

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

I heard y’all had a wonderful service led by United Women in Faith last week!  I was at Adult Renewal Retreat at Camp Magruder with 13 people from Haven Dinner!  The first year we had 5, last year we had 9, this year 13, and there are 8 other people who are regularly involved in Haven Dinner who weren’t at the retreat and one of the people we met at camp wants to join us, so  Haven has grown from about 5 to about 22 people in 3 years.

In a time when most churches are declining, we can say the harvest is plentiful in Haven Dinner.  But the harvest doesn’t look like it used to.

On Saturday night at camp, while watching the sun set, Troy, the Camp Manager, and I were talking about our common problem as church leaders.

We do what we do because Jesus has inspired in us compassion for the crowds because people are harassed and helpless.  People are in need of a community where they are safe and accepted.  A community they can turn to when they need a friend.  A community that gives them the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves, where they can do some good while experiencing belonging.

If only there were some kind of group… 

a group of people who gather on a regular basis… 

Like some kind of…. Church…

The problem, as Troy and I discussed, is not that we need to create these communities from scratch, or build sacred places set aside for the intentional practice of Beloved Community in nature… some kind of Church Camp, maybe….

The Problem is not that we don’t have good Churches and Good Church Camps.

The problem is that people don’t know that our Churches and Church camps are good.

And by good, I do not mean that we are perfect, or that we never do harm.  I mean that we are intentionally trying to do no harm and do all the good we can.

People don’t know that our churches and camps are good because other churches and even our past selves have done harm.

I asked permission to share this story.

This is a true story.  This is Torben’s story.

Torben was raised in a conservative branch of the church.

And Torben is autistic.  

Not the, I’m a little socially awkward kind of autistic.  

The, it took a long time to learn how to talk kind of autism.

The, very literal thinking kind of autism.

There are good things about growing up in the conservative church.

Like there are very clear directions on what you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do and clarity is kindness when you’re autistic!

And you belong to a community who is required to be nice to you, even when you’re a little different.

And there are bad things.

Like punishing teenagers with 2 days in isolation at camp because they kissed another teen.

Torben felt shunned and rejected for the rest of the week at camp after those 2 days.

But the main event of that camp was the dramatic enactment of the end times. 

The kids were told that in the end times, which they were taught were coming soon, so they needed to be prepared!

In the end times, it would become illegal to be Christian so they needed to practice hiding from the government.

So the church paid some police friends of theirs to come at night, wearing their uniforms and tactical gear, and bang on the doors and shine their flashlights in the windows and pretend to be searching for Christians.

Riding right past that ethics violation…

The camp leaders had taught the children to hide and be silent while being searched for by the government during the Tribulation part of the end times.

Also, riding right past the fact that there is no prophecy of a Tribulation of the end times in the Bible.

This was what church was like for young Torben.

A place where you were told that you were a part of the right group and everyone else was evil.

Torben thought this whole thing didn’t seem right, but, if they said anything they’d end up in solitary confinement again, so they didn’t say anything.

And the church told them again and again, and again, that if they ever left the church the devil was coming for them.

So when Torben left the church in their teen years,  everyone they knew turned their back on them.  Their church friends weren’t their friends anymore.

Friendless, and with time on their hands, Torben was recruited to be a drug mule.  Torben didn’t know they were a drug mule.  They just knew that a guy paid them really good money to deliver packages across town.  When the FBI picked them up in a drug sting, Torben genuinely didn’t know they were doing anything wrong, because they were autistic and just following directions.  So the FBI told them to not go back to work right before the big drug bust.

So Torben concluded that everything the church told them was right.  Torben had left the church and therefore Satan had gotten them into drug running.  And now they were evil and there was no help for it.

Which led to substance abuse and some more bad situations.  But God placed some helpers in Torben’s path.  I would say God, because I believe in prevenient grace, but that’s not quite how Torben would say it.  Torben would say that they got long COVID which permanently damaged their heart, and in the process of getting the help they needed to be physically healthier,Torben also got emotionally healthier, and learned how to be a peer support person.

And one of those helpers, invited Torben to Haven Dinner.

And we all encouraged Torben to go to camp with us.

And at the end of the week, Torben shared in the gratitude circle that they hadn’t needed to take their short acting anti-anxiety medications all weekend and they were shocked because they didn’t realize that church camp could be a safe place.   

Before Haven Dinner, before Montavilla United Methodist,

They didn’t realize that a church could be a safe place.

The harvest is plentiful!

But the workers don’t know what to do!

Because, as Troy put it,  everything we were taught about how to run a camp or a church doesn’t work anymore.

Not since COVID. 

I’ve read the church growth books.  How to organize your systems and volunteers and staff and overcome the problems created by fast growth.

I’ve designed successful children’s and youth ministries that had children dragging their parents to church because they didn’t want to miss Sunday school.

Back when I was a church musician, I could confidently state that I would increase worship attendance by 11% in my first year, because I did that in every church I worked in.

Now, I only know one thing.

My neighbor is the person who needs me to be a neighbor to them.

The person who is lonely, hungry, hopeless and harassed.

Look at our scripture for today – the last paragraph, starting with verse 5.

Jesus tells them to start easy by starting with their own neighborhoods.

Jesus tells them, don’t try to talk to the people you already know don’t want to talk to you.  Don’t talk to the gentiles — which meant the non-Jewish people – the Greeks and the Romans or the Samaritans who were the former Northern Israelites.  Jesus went north and talked with the Samaritans and the Syrophoenician woman.  God likes to save the hard jobs for Godself!  Then later, God sent Paul.

Verse 7 – and as you go proclaim the good news.  And help people. For free.

 Now, I don’t usually begin Haven Dinner by saying, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

I’m also not a doctor and to my knowledge I have not cast out any demons or raised the dead…. Lately.

But I can tell you this.

Several months ago we had a bunch of Havenites who were out of work so we had a lot of resume writing and job applying sessions.  And the Mission Team shelled out less than $100 so that several people could take the online bartending class and exam for $11 each.

Now everyone has a job who was a part of that group.

Only one of them is bartending – as a side gig in the evenings.

But you choosing to believe in them made a difference.

You, Choosing to invest in them made a difference.

Knowing that they have a community – a church – who cares about them enough to take an $11 risk on them in an economy where a good burrito costs $12.

That *shows* them that the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

That you allow the camp scholarships that you created in days in plenty to be used to pay for them to experience the goodness of Camp Magruder.

That shows them that the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

That in a time when this church is struggling financially – we’ll talk about that more in next week’s Town Hall meeting – that you are still choosing to prioritize Haven Dinner and Family Promise and the Sewists Collective – ministries that bring in no money – yet you are choosing to prioritize them, because these ministries are changing lives.

Did you know that 16 people attend the sewists gatherings?

This is why we are experiencing an unusual harvest.

An unusual harvest that doesn’t look like church used to look –

An unusual harvest that doesn’t fill the pews on Sunday morning.

An unusual harvest that proclaims that the Kingdom of God is here 

with more than words.

The harvest is plentiful,

And there aren’t a whole lot of us, and we don’t really know what we’re doing.

But we are bringing in an unusual harvest of crafters and Queers… the kind of outcasts and oddballs that Jesus hung out with.

The kingdom of God is here.

And we’re a part of it.

Amen.

Matthew 28:16-20 NRSVUE

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is one of the most selectively interpreted passages in the whole Bible.

You can pretty much identify what kind of Christian someone is by which parts of these 2 verses they emphasize.

There are the people who emphasize going to all nations, often white people, who think their job is to conquer the world with Western Christianity.  Colonialism has done a lot of harm in a lot of places.  Like it’s basically the fault of Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries that LGBTQ+ folks are demonized in colonized places, like much of Africa.  White missionaries taught that all of the indigenous religions were “Devil Worship and Demonic,” and since Queer folks are often drawn to religious life,  the Queer clergy of those indigenous religions became associated with “Devil worship,” so now in many colonized places, being LGBTQ+ is considered demonic.  Despite the fact that there have been Queer Clergy in Christianity since the beginning!  

But there’s also good things about going to all nations.  In places like Tonga, South Korea and Cambodia,  organizations like United Methodist Women introduced Feminism into those very patriarchal cultures.  Feminism being the very simple idea that women are equal in the eyes of God.

There are baptists, whose focus is on baptizing everyone.  “Getem’ wet and getem’ saved!”  To which I would annoyingly counter to my Lutheran friends, that if the goal is merely baptism, then why not create “Operation Baptismal Font.”

Load up a bunch of bomber aircraft with tanks of Holy Water and hose down the whole Earth while playing the baptismal liturgy on loudspeaker.  “I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!  A-men!”

Of course, baptizing people without their consent is religious abuse, so I would never actually recommend “Operation Baptismal Font”…although infant baptism is, precisely, baptizing people without their consent.  We are substituting the parent’s consent for the child’s consent, which is why we follow it up with Confirmation, so that young people can make their own commitment when they are old enough to decide for themselves.

Baptizing people, with consent, and confirmation are a good thing, but it’s the beginning of our membership in the church, not the end all and be all of our faith.  Baptism is something, it isn’t everything.

And then there’s the names in which we Baptize people into the church.

We Methodists like all of orthodox, Appostolic, Christianity  are Trinitarians, so we baptize in the names of the Trinity. The World Council of Churches says that I MUST Baptize in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or they will kick us Methodists out of the Council of Churches.  But this kind of exclusively male language for God leaves out the rest of the Biblical Witness where God also describes Godself as, 

• El Shadai, which translates to – The Many Breasted One
• A Mother Hen who gathers her chicks under her wings
• And the Tetragammanon –  Yahweh – which is an abbreviation for 
• “I Am Who I Am”

Father was meant to convey a familial relationship, not to identify God’s gender as exclusively male.

God uses, male, female and ungendered descriptions for Godself, so I think the most accurate pronouns for God are They/Them or God/Godself, which is why we use “Our Creator” instead of “Our Father” in worship.  And I typically Baptize people in the name of Creator, Christ and Spirit.

But once again – which parts people emphasize or de-emphasize tells you a lot about what kind of Christian they are.

There are those who focus on teaching them to obey.  

We often see this in “high-control” forms of Christianity.  

Like Complementarianism – that’s the official term for versions of Christianity that believe that women are subservient to men.

They’re they ones who LOVE quoting Ephesians 5:22-24

22 Wives, obey your husbands as you obey the Lord.

23 The husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church people. The church is his body and he saved it.

24 Wives should obey their husbands in everything, just as the church people obey Christ.

First of all, Paul was kinda dead when Ephesians was written in about 90 or 100 AD.  So the Paul who wrote letters to the women whom he left in charge of the Christ Communities that he founded, obviously didn’t write the book of Ephesians.  So this passage is quite different from the mutuality that the authentic Paul wrote about in Galatians 3:28 and 1 Corinthians 7.  

Ephesians chapters 5 and 6, including the instruction that slaves should obey their masters (Ep 6:5-8), are not the teachings of the authentic Paul, but the household codes of behavior in First Century Roman Culture.

These hierarchical teachings are the result of A beleaguered church deciding to “go along, to get along,” within Roman culture.  Showing us, that from the beginning, Christians sought ways to temper the radicalness of Jesus’ message in order to survive in the world.

And yet, Ephesians also contains chapter 4 verse 12, my favorite Biblical basis for my job description as a Pastor – to “equip the saints for the work of ministry.”

So we don’t want to throw this baby epistle out with the bath water, but there’s a lot of bathwater in the book of Ephesians.

So those of us who question high control forms of Christianity, then ask, obey what?  A small group of insecure men?  No!

We are to obey EVERYTHING that Jesus (because Jesus is the one speaking in this passage!) …

We are to obey EVERYTHING that JESUS commanded us.

Which, If you were here last week, or the past few weeks, as I preached my way through the last part of the Gospel of John you might remember that Jesus said in John 13:34, “I give you a new commandment…that you LOVE one another.

Or as Jesus put it in Matthew 22 and Mark 12,  Love God and Love your neighbor – All the Law and the Prophets are summed up in these two commandments.

Which can be summed up in one word.  LOVE

We are supposed to disciple people into Jesus’ Way of Love.

And that’s hard.

Because, have you met people?

So some Christians put the emphasis on remembering that God is with us always.

As it says in Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

And on those days that are really no good, awful, kinds of days, Romans 8:38-39 is a wonderful verse to remember.

And there are Christians who put their focus on, “to the end of the age.”

The people who are eagerly awaiting the return of the Messiah.

This can be a fear inducing, harmful, cult of doomsday preppers.

The people who are preparing for the tribulation and the rapture – which are not  Biblical things!

Or this can be people who are focused on following Jesus with intensity.

People who are trying to live as if today is their last day and they may face God tomorrow.  So they do their best to love God and love their neighbors – which is Biblical.

But the reason that I titled this sermon, Everything, is because I think we need to read this passage as a whole and take everything in this passage seriously.

The Greek that gets translated as “go therefore” actually reads closer to

As you go about your life, disciple people.  

People of all nations, not just fellow Jews, not just fellow Americans, not just fellow middle class white people, not just bible studies for church people…

…we are called to disciple all the people.

We are also called to baptize the people we disciple into the family of God, the church, the Beloved Community, The Way.  Jesus called it The Way.  It doesn’t really matter what we call it – the idea is that Baptism is a right of initiation – a ritual where we consent to letting Spirit mess with our lives.

And we baptize in the names of the Triune God – none of which are expansive enough to fully contain the expansive identity of God!

And we are obligated to teach or disciple (same thing) teach those who have consented to join the movement to obey EVERYTHING that JESUS commanded us – which can pretty much be summed up as love.

And because loving one another, not just our favorite people, but all people is hard — I mean, you’ve met people.  Sometimes we are a delight and sometimes …not so much.

Because the rule of love is hard, 

We need to remember that the Great I Am is with us always, all the way to the end – whatever that means.

Because, seriously, any theologian who thinks they can tell you exactly what the end will be is trying to sell you something.

 And this is Methodism.

To fully embrace both the Great Commission – as people often refer to this verse, and the Great Commandment of Love.

Not to Cherry Pick which parts we like and which parts we don’t.

Because, let’s be real, us Progressive Methodists love to love our neighbors, but we are afraid, yes I said it, we are afraid, to make new disciples. 

But as we talked about last week – In Acts chapter 2:43-47,  “day by day, God added to their number those who were being saved,”  because day by day” the people gathered together with “glad and generous hearts,” to love their neighbors by sharing food and meeting people’s needs.

And friends – I am not kidding, when I say that every single time Haven Dinner meets to share food and share our joys and concerns, God is adding another new person!

We make disciples by obeying what Jesus commanded us to do – which is to love our neighbors.

There is no separation between the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

The Great Commandment is right there in the Great Commission – in the part where Jesus tells us to obey everything that Jesus commanded us.

As the Mandalorian would say,  This is the Way.

Love is the Way.

So…

As you go about your life, wherever you are, whomever you are with, make disciples by obeying the commandment of love, whom we can then Baptize into the Way of God, and teach to obey what Jesus taught us – which is Love, and it’s not going to be easy, so remember, God is with us, always, to the very end.

Acts 2: 1-4, 14-21, 43-47 NRSVUE

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams.

18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit,

        and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show portents in the heaven above

    and signs on the earth below,

        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

20 The sun shall be turned to darkness

    and the moon to blood,

        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

43 Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Happy Birthday, Church!  Today is Pentecost Sunday!

Pentecost is actually a Jewish holy day – a celebration of the 5 books of the Law – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – hence the Greek work for 5 – “Pente.”

Which is why Peter and the other disciples end up standing in the courtyard of the Temple and preaching to people in their own languages – they went to celebrate Pentecost and Spirit did a thing!

And it was a pretty spectacular thing!  Tongues of flame and a sound like a rushing wind and people speaking in languages that they didn’t know!

This is the event that Pentecostals – most of whom are descendants of the Methodist Movement through the holiness side of the Methodist family – take their name.  The foundational idea behind Pentecostalism being that Spirit is literally still speaking through people.

Pentecost has a very supernatural, spectacular feel to it, so in celebrating this holy day, we often pull out all the stops with bird, or fire, or wind, or butterfly themed decorations!  

Reading the scripture in multiple languages.

Children making flame hats out of construction paper and flame wands out of crepe paper streamers.

Turning on a BIG Fan to recreate a sound like a rushing wind.

I even did a balloon drop in one large church where I worked!

Red, orange and yellow balloons hoisted into the ceiling beams with ropes that when pulled, released the balloons onto people’s heads.

Because it’s fun.

Because we’re trying to teach the story.

But also because we seem to forget that the miraculous spectacle of the day is not the important part of the story.

I’m about to share with you an idea that totally changed how I read scripture.

Totally changed how I read scripture.

Are you ready?

In the pre-scientific era in which ALL of the Bible was written – miracles were used as proof that the teaching was legitimate.

For example in 1 Kings chapter 18, the Prophet Elijah wants King Ahab to listen to him talk about God instead of the prophets of Baal, talking about Baal, so he challenges the Priests of Baal to a miracle competition.  The challenge was:

Build an altar, 

put an animal sacrifice in it, and 

light the fire using only prayer!

It’s like a reality TV Survivor competition – make fire using no matches — using nothing but prayer!

Of course the priests of Baal fail to pray down fire, because science.

Then Elijah ups the game and has the whole thing drenched in water, says one little prayer and fire falls from heaven and burns the whole altar, even the stones, to ash.

Not science!

The Miracle proved that the message was worth listening to.

They accepted the message on faith because the miracle was convincing.

Then:  The Miracle validates the Message

Now:  The Message validates the Miracle

This is almost totally the opposite of how we think now.

We hear these stories of fire descending from heaven, or the Red Sea parting, or Jesus feeding the 5000, and we think —

The message is good, so I’m willing to listen to the miracle.

The Message proves that the miracle is worth considering.

Then, they accepted the message on faith because the miracle was convincing.

Now, we accept the miracle on faith because the message is convincing.

So if you’ve ever wondered why there are so many miracles in the Bible, which we find difficult to deal with today, this is why.

*Most* of humanity’s world view has done a complete 180 regarding miracles and messages.

But as Christians we are grounded in these stories that contain miracles, so we get caught up in trying to justify the miracles!

So we often spend Pentecost trying to re-enact miracles with crepe paper and balloons…which just makes the miracles seem even more ridiculous…

When what we should be doing is focusing on the message of Pentecost.

So we’re going to skip all the way down to verse 43!

43 Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 

Which says what I just explained in much fewer words!  People were impressed with the miracles so they were then willing to listen to the apostles.

And because the apostles taught the people what Jesus had taught them…

Look at verse 44

All these people who believed in what was being taught started sharing all things in common;  even selling their stuff and sharing the cash with everyone, so that everyone’s needs were met.

Woofff!  

Selling everything they had and giving it away to anyone who had needs!

Theologians have tried to explain this away 9 ways from Sunday.

Saying that was just a Pentecost thing.

Or that’s an exaggeration.

Or they only shared things with members.

Probably the most theologically legitimate explanation for the Radical Share Economy of the post- Pentecost Church is that they all thought that Jesus was coming right back, so they thought that nobody really needed to work or own anything – but pretty soon they realized that sharing everything with everyone wasn’t practical because some people’s needs were being over-met and others were still in need…. Which is kind of true… They did think Jesus would be right back, and they did appoint Deacons to manage meeting people’s needs in a more organized and responsible way.

But I think the most overlooked theological point is that the Church at Pentecost enacted the Year of the Lord’s Favor – the Year of Jubilee as a grass roots action of radical generosity.

Where those who had more than enough sold their possessions and redistributed their wealth to those who didn’t have enough – they were doing what the government of Israel should have been doing every 50 years according to Leviticus chapter 25.

And this is such a radical teaching – just as radical then, as it is now – that this story needed a really spectacular miracle to validate the sheer audacity of choosing generosity in a world that is centered on greed.

The real message of the story of Pentecost.

The real good news of this miraculous story is not wind, and languages and tongues of flame.

The real good news is that day by day – this is in verse 46 – day by day, they broke bread in their homes and shared food together with glad and generous hearts. 

And, BECAUSE day by day, they gathered in homes and at the Temple with glad and generous hearts…they earned the goodwill of all the people.

And day by day, God added to their numbers, those who were finding healing and wholeness.

I say, healing and wholeness, because sozoh – the Greek work that is translated as “saved”  means healing and holistic wellness – in body, mind and spirit.  Having enough to pay the bills and put food on the table goes a long way towards physical healing and wholeness.

And day by day, God added to their numbers, those who were finding healing and wholeness.

Not because of wind and fire, but because of glad and generous hearts.

Church, in our Board meeting last Sunday, we discussed an article with some pretty serious statistics from Pacific Northwest Annual Conference, our neighbors to the North in the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area

In the past 10 years, PNW Annual Conference – that’s Washington State and Northern Idaho – 

• has shrunk from 236 churches to 187 churches – that’s a loss of 49 churches.
• The One Corporate Sized Church – that’s 500+ shrunk down to a Program size church – that’s 150- 500
• 13 churches shrunk from Program sized to Pastoral sized- that’s 50- 150 members
• There are about half as many Pastoral sized churches – that’s 50-150 in members
• And there are more Family sized churches, but only because about half the previously Pastoral sized churches now have 50 or less members.  
• Of those 119 family-sized congregations, 98 average fewer than 35 in worship 

And I share this not to say, Oh No!  The sky is falling! The Church is dying!

I share this to say, we are not alone.

Montavilla is not the only church who used to be Program sized, moved to Pastoral sized, and now is Family sized, with an average of fewer than 35 in worship.

We’re not alone.

We’re not less good at doing church than other churches.

We’re not “doing it wrong.”

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the midst of what historians call an Epochal Change.

Like we’re standing at the edge of the end of one Epic and the beginning of another age in history.

And so were the Disciples on Pentecost.

The Disciples didn’t know what they were doing!

Until the day of Pentecost, they were HIDING IN THE UPPER ROOM!

They were so scared and bewildered after Jesus’ death and resurrection that they had no idea what to do.

They were standing at the edge of the end of what Historians now call the End of Antiquity and the Beginning of the Common Era!

They didn’t know what they were doing, they just did what they knew.

They went to the Temple to celebrate the Festival of the 5 books of the Torah and Spirit showed up.

They didn’t know what to do next, so they just did what Jesus did with them.

They hung out, they ate, they talked about what it means to really follow God – then they went out and did it – by practicing neighbor love with glad and generous hearts.

They practiced Radical Hospitality, without any intention of being radical.

They were just doing with others what Jesus had done with them.

Church, this Pentecost, I believe we are standing at the edge of the end of the Common Era and the Beginning of… I don’t know what the Historians will call this!

And I don’t know what to do to save the institutional church.

I’m not actually convinced that we’re even supposed to save the institutional church.

Temple Judaism was holy and God let it come to an end, but the Jewish faith went on.

The Holy Roman Empire was… a thing, and God let it come to an end, but our faith went on in new forms..

Mid-century-modern Institutional Church is coming to an end, but our faith – Christianity is moving on to new forms.

But at the center of all these movements are the teachings of God.

The practice of hospitality.

The practice of compassion and care.

The practice of neighbor-love.

The practice of day by day, gathering in homes and churches with glad and generous hearts, and day by day, God added to their numbers.

So that’s what we’re doing, and it’s working.

I know that it doesn’t look like it’s working on Sunday, but day by day, as we gather with Haven Dinner on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, God is adding new people to Haven every single month!

Since last summer God has added 9 more people to Haven Dinner, and we’ve got our biggest group ever heading to Camp Magruder Adult Renewal Retreat the first weekend in June, and we’re picking up a completely random person who registered for camp and needs a ride!

Since last summer, God has added new people to the Sewists Collective every month — they now have 3 gatherings a month – a day time gathering, an evening gathering and a knitting circle.  There’s even a young man who’s a committed Sewist!

Day by day – I see you bringing donations to the Haven Dinner pantry, gathering household items for people who need something, and dropping stuff off for Rahab’s Sisters with glad and generous hearts.

And day by day, even in our old fashioned mid-century-modern Sunday worship, God is adding to our numbers.  Thanks be to God, we’ve got some new friends.

So happy birthday, Church!

I don’t know what we’re going to look like next year, much less 100 years from now, but I do know this.

The future begins with glad and generous hearts.

We know how to do that!

John 14:5-21 NRSVUE

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

 

18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

For the Past 3 weeks we’ve been working our way through readings from the gospel of John learning that:

• When the Gospel of John blames “the Jews” – this is not an endorsement of anti-semitism — it’s an argument between Jewish Christians and Jews – an argument between siblings
• Creator, Christ and Spirit all have the same personality – so there is no Angry Father God.

If you want to read those sermons they’re on the church website Montavillaumchurch.org 

Today we’re dealing with one more horrible interpretation of the gospel of John.  The idea that love equals obedience.

The idea that love equals obedience, has been used to justify the oppression of many people by the church.

It was used to justify the oppression of people who were enslaved.

It has been used to justify harsh parenting.

It is still used in certain sects of conservative Christianity to justify the oppression of women.

The idea being that if we are “good Christians” who love God, then we must be obedient to all the commandments of God.  Which is fine 

 But in fundamentalist branches of the faith, what those commandments are is interpreted by people who love power not God.

Those advocating for slavery said that if you love God you will obey your earthly masters.

Those advocating for child abuse say that if you love God you will obey your parents – and if you don’t then we’re required to discipline you harshly to save your soul.

Those advocating for the subjugation of women say that if you love God you will obey your husband, your Pastor and all other male authorities…

And when clergywomen and other Progressive clergy say, that’s not biblical they will say:

But It’s right there in verse 15:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Yes….but this passage is part of a whole conversation that starts in chapter 13 at the footwashing and last supper of Maundy Thursday and the only commandment that Jesus gave them was John 13:34-35:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. 

The Commandment is LOVE.

And you might, reasonably, ask – but it says commandments, plural, not commandment, singular.

Absolutely!  

And in Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus says that all the Law and the Prophets come down to LOVE – Love God and love your neighbor.

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 obedience to the commandments.

Oppression is not love.

Slavery is not loving our neighbors or loving God – whether we are talking about America’s original sin of the generational enslavement of African Americans, or the modern slavery that still happens today in the forms of the new Jim Crow, sexual trafficking and labor trafficking… ask any United Woman in Faith and she’ll explain modern slavery to you!

Child abuse is not loving our neighbors or loving God – whether we are talking about high control parenting that is advocated for by ultra-conservative Christian groups, or just plan assault pretending to be discipline- that’s not compatible with the Christian teaching of love.

Oppression of women is not love – trying to remove our voting rights, our reproductive rights, silencing the voices of victims of assault, unequal pay for equal work, and the idea so prevalent in some ultra-conservative Christian spaces that women are to be subservient to men – that’s not love.

Love looks like justice.

Love looks like fairness.

Love looks like compassion.

Love looks like safety.

Love looks like respect.

Love looks like being listened to.

Love looks like the free will that God created us to have.

What else does love look like to you?

As a part of the United Women in Faith Mother’s Day celebration, we’ve collected some thoughts on the women in our lives who showed us love.  

John 14:1-14 NRSVUE

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

You can follow along in your bulletin…

Verse 1 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled”

I’m already troubled, but I believe in God and Jesus and Spirit, so here I am… But I’m troubled about the Gospel of John.

As I mentioned last week – the Gospel of John is not my favorite Gospel because of the way it has been used to justify anti-semitism, and certain very narrow, exclusionary interpretations of Christianity.

But what Jesus was telling the Disciples to not be troubled about was his crucifixion.  

In John chapter 13, right before today’s passage in chapter 14, it’s Maundy Thursday.  We call it Maundy, in Christian tradition, because in John 13:24 Jesus says, “I give you a new mandatum – mandatum is Latin for Commandment… “I give you a new mandatum, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Maundy Thursday is a nick-name for Mandatum Thursday – Commandment Thursday.  And the commandment is LOVE.

So why are they disturbed?

Love is a good thing, right?

Well, Jesus is giving them last instructions after telling them that he’s about to be arrested and crucified, betrayed and denied.  So they’re a little shook.  Here’s what happened.

Jesus washed their feet and Peter got very dramatic about the whole thing.

Then, Jesus told them that one of them was going to betray him.

Which would get him killed.

So Jesus gave them a new mandatum – a new command to love one another.

After which Peter is like, wait, no, you’re going where?  I’m coming with you!

And Jesus is like – bruh – you’re not going to follow me, you’re going to deny me 3 times before the roosters wake up.

So, justifiably so, they were feeling more than a little troubled!

So Jesus tells them, in verse 1, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.  Just Believe in God and believe in me.

And since Jesus has just told everyone that they can’t go where Jesus is going, Jesus reassures them that there will be a place for them in the house of God.

By this time the disciples are sooo confused.

Like, where is Jesus going?

Why can’t we come?

What house?

What do you mean not even Peter can come? 

So Thomas, 

I like Thomas, he’s not afraid to ask the questions that everyone is thinking.

So Thomas, asks in verse 5, So… where are you going, so we can catch up to you?

And maybe because the authors of John are kinda extra, or maybe because Jesus is definitely extra, Jesus responds in verse 6 and 7:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

And Philip decides to be a good friend and back Thomas up, because this is making less and less sense to them because they’re just trying to figure out where Jesus is going, like *geographically,* so that they can meet up later, and now Jesus is talking about being one with the Father….

Soooo will we be meeting up with the Father too?

Really the Disciples are just so confused at this point because the idea that Jesus was going to be executed by Rome was just not comprehensible to them.

So that’s what’s going on in the story.

What troubles me about this passage in the gospel of John is the way some Pastors have interpreted verse 6 while ignoring verses 7- 11.

What troubles me is an understanding of how salvation works, called Penal Substitutionary Atonement.

This is a relatively new understanding of how salvation works – it only dates back to the 19th century.

The idea being that no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, which is what verse 6 says, in part….sort of.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement – or PSA goes like this:

Father God is angry because He (it’s always He in PSA!)

He is angry because He made a perfect creation and we screwed it up with all our sinning.

Then, they take Romans 6:23 completely out of context by reducing Paul’s, long explanation of why we should try not to sin anymore after we decide to follow Jesus, down to just, “the wages of sin is death.”

Then they take “the wages of sin is death,” and interpret that to mean that sin must be paid for with death.  Rather than the obvious meaning that is in alignment with the rest of Romans 6 that sin doesn’t end well.

Maybe you’ve seen the PSA diagram where:

God is here                                                            sinful humanity is here

                       And Jesus is a bridge between us 

The logic of PSA being that God *REQUIRES DEATH* to pay for sin, and since the plan of flooding the whole earth and Noah’s arc thing didn’t put a stop to sin,  The Father decided to have his son killed for our sin.  Jesus’ death becomes the substitute for our punishment.

Hence the term substitutionary.

The main problem with Penal Substitutionary Atonement is that PSA ignores one of the foundational ideas of Apostolic Christianity:  Trinitarianism.

Look at verses 9- 11, starting in the middle verse 9

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, 

Trinitarianism is only complicated if you’re trying to figure out how it mechanically works.  Do I know precisely how Jesus, God and Spirit are one and yet separate – no.  Nobody does – it’s what we call a mystery of the faith.  Don’t worry about it.  We’ll understand it better by and by!

However, Trinitarianism is very simple to understand in how God functions as Trinity.

Creator, Christ and Spirit are all the same personality.

If you’ve met Jesus, you’ve met the Father, and you’ve met the Spirit.

If you’ve met Spirit, which is more common these days, you’ve met Jesus and the Mothering God who gave us birth.

Jesus has the same personality as the Father and 

Creator has the same personality as Jesus.

If, as believers in Penal Substitutionary Atonement argue,  Father God cannot bear to be close to sin, then how could Jesus stand to be around all those sinners?  

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

It makes no sense for “Father God” to be an angry, abusive father who kills his son because He can’t stand His sinful creation and for Jesus to be a loving, forgiving savior who wants to be with us always if Father, Son and Spirit ALL HAVE THE SAME PERSONALITY!

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

Penal Substitutionary Atonement, and the way it misuses scripture, troubles me.

But I believe in God, and I believe that Jesus is God.

I believe that God decided to come down here Godself, not out of anger, but out of love.

To command us to love one another, just as God loves us.

I believe that it is not Jesus’ death that saves us from an angry Father.

I believe that Jesus rose from the dead to prove that it is love that saves us – and love cannot be killed.

There is no Angry Father God.

You know who was angry?

Zeus.

Zeus, the King of the Roman gods, was an angry old man sitting on a cloud ready to strike people down with a bolt of lightning for annoying him.

Zeus, made half-deity sons with unwilling human women, who sometimes intervened on behalf of their human mothers and siblings.

I think that the old religion of the Roman Empire bled into the new religion of the Holy Roman Empire, such that the personality of Zeus was substituted for the personality of Yahweh, which is the personality of Jesus.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

There is no Angry Father God and gentle Jesus – there is only One God.

Does God get mad?

Absolutely!

Jesus got mad at the money changers in the Temple and at the bad Pharisees, not all Pharisees, just the bad ones,  in the Pharisee movement who spread bad theology.

God got mad at the Kings of Israel for failing to care for widows and orphans, overtaxing the poor, treating Bathsheba the way David did,  and allowing the worship of other gods like Molach who demanded child sacrifice.  Ewww.

Scripture shows us that God is capable of anger… 

at injustice, mercilessness, and oppression.

Scripture does not show us a God who sits on a cloud with a bolt of lighting in his hand, waiting to smite you for walking into a church!

God loves you.  No ifs, ands or lighting bolts!

Let’s continue into verse 12.

12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, 

Not only does God love us  – Creator, Christ and Spirit loves us –

God empowers us.

God empowers us to do even more than Jesus did while on this earth.

That sounds a little crazy right?

Like, I can’t raise the dead, or feed 10,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish!

But hasn’t the church fed multitudes more since Jesus fed the 5,000+ people?

Jesus was able to heal people with a word or a touch, but haven’t the hospitals founded by the Church healed Billions more in the last 2000 years?

Jesus taught many people, but haven’t the schools, Universities, and Seminaries the Church has founded taught Billions more?

Because since Jesus went to the Father, followers of Jesus have asked God to help us love one another as God loves us.

God isn’t waiting for us to screw up so They can hit us with lightning.

God is waiting for us to ask Them for anything in the name of Jesus.

Well, not just anything, God isn’t a convenience store in the sky!

Anything that is in alignment with the teachings of Jesus.

So, I’m going to ask God to get our housing project moving again.

To get it built soon enough for us all to see it finished.

For us to be the church for the people who live there.

Because Jesus said, in verses 13 and 14:

13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

John 10:1-10 NRSVUE

10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I confess that I used to not like this passage and others like it in the Gospel of John.

I don’t like the way it sounds like people are being excluded.

But I think it’s more true to say that I don’t like the way this passage was interpreted for me by other preachers.

They way this passage was taught to me had 2 main points.

1. Antisemitism.  I was taught that the thieves and bandits were supposedly the Pharisees and the Priests. The idea being that Christianity was replacing Judaism and anybody who was still Jewish and promoting Judaism were the bad guys.  

The idea that there is antisemitism in the Gospel of John does have exegetical validity, unfortunately.  Most scholars believe that the gospel of John was written in the 90’s of the Common Era – in what we today call Syria where a group of, mostly, Jewish Christians lived among other Jews.  But the non-Christian Jews had rejected these weird Jewish Christians  Rejection then looked kinda similar to being canceled today.  It meant people might boycott your business,  kick you out of the Synygoge, or end a friendship because of the difference in religion.   The Christ Community that the Apostle John founded in Syria felt rejected by their Jewish community and that rejection resulted in some pretty nasty insults.  But those insults were like a fight between siblings – I can call my brother names, but if someone outside the family comes for my brother – I’m going to show you that we are still family!

Unfortunately – generations of Christians, by which I mean approximately 1,500 years of European Christians, did not understand that this was a fight between Jewish siblings over who the Messiah is.

 So European Christians interpreted the gospel of John as a justification for laws within the Holy Roman Empire that prohibited Jews from owning real estate, to the point that Jewish people were forced to go into trade.  And because the Medieval Catholic church decided that charging interest to a fellow Christian was usury, the Holy Roman Empire created a loophole where only Jewish people could loan money for interest — then when Kings decided they didn’t want to pay back their loans, they would incite a violent riot against the Jews for “killing Jesus.”

Which is why the Nazi’s were so angry at the Jewish bankers during the Great Depression, which after centuries of money motivated anti-semitism, led to the Holocaust.

…and also where the “global Jewish cabal” language comes from that led to the ridiculousness of “Jewish Space Lasers.”

Therefore — when reading the gospel of John, we really, really, really, need to understand that when the authors of John use the term “the Jews,” what they really meant was the religious and political authorities who collaborated with Rome to crucify Jesus and those among their own Jewish community, in Syria, who were canceling them.   NOT all Jews in all times and places!

2. The second objectionable way that I was taught this passage was the idea that there was only one right way to be a Christian – which usually meant that My Church was the *Right Church* and all the other Churches were apostate.  And those people who claimed to believe in Jesus, but didn’t go to church…. Well!  They were just right out!

Like – unless you pray the sinners prayer and declare Jesus is your Lord and Savior you’re not really saved 

Which is often said with zero awareness that these were the titles of the Caesar – 

So unless you proclaimed God with the titles of Caesar you must be going to hell – because the gate is so narrowly defined that there is no room for questions, no room for doubts, no room for people of other faiths.

This second interpretation of a very narrow faith is a literalistic interpretation that ignores the largely poetic and metaphorical language of the gospel of John – and ignores the Jesus of the other 3 gospels who healed and spent time with non-Jewish people like the Centurion and the Syro-phonecian woman, whom Jesus said had more faith than anyone he’d ever met 

Honestly, I kind of tended to avoid exclusionary passages like this one until recently:

– as I have watched people who call themselves Christian call compassion “a woke mind virus”

– as our Vice President tried to school the Pope on Just War theory.

– as Hegseth quoted fake Bible verses from movie Pulp Fiction, without even realizing those verses are not in the Bible.

I used to dislike these verses, but now I get it.

The author of John was dealing with Leaders pretending to bring a message from God, who obviously knew nothing about who God is and what God stands for.

The kind of thieves and bandits that John was talking about are those whose version of the “Good News” – the word Gospel means good news – 

Thieves and bandits are the kind of people whose version of the gospel is not good news, for well, anybody but themselves.

Spiritual thieves and bandits are those who come to steal and kill and destroy.

Those who took up a collection from the poor refugee survivors of the destruction of the Temple in 69AD to try to rebuild the Temple in the year 90 were thieves taking advantage of the people.

And those who today are cutting Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid benefits – that we all paid into – so they can give more tax breaks to the rich and fund everlasting war, are thieves and bandits.

Now I think I understand. The authors of John were telling their community that we need to understand the difference between: 

• the Way of Jesus, who came that we might have abundant life 
• and the ways of those who like the Roman Caesars – claim to be our Lord and Savior – but are neither a good leader nor saving anybody but themselves.

I think the author of John, by having Jesus declare himself to be the gate and the shepherd whose voice is familiar to the sheep, is reminding us to compare the voices of others to what Jesus actually said and did.

Because the Jesus that I know gave us his mission statement in the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 18 and 19

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The kind of Good News that Jesus proclaims 

is good news for the poor and the oppressed.  

It is good news for captives, and disabled people. 

It is good news for those in debt up to their ears – because “the year of the Lord’s favor”  is a direct reference to the Year of Jubilee when all monetary debts were to be forgiven!

I now  believe that what the author of the Gospel of John was saying is that:

We can recognize fake Christians by how well their talking points and actions line up 

– or don’t line up –

With the teachings and actions of Jesus.

People who are not filtering their choices and actions through the gateway of the authentic Jesus aren’t sheep of the shepherd.  They’re wolves pretending to be sheep.

Now does this mean that all the people, including myself, who have ever mis-interpreted scripture are bandits and thieves?

No… We’re human.  We are products of our cultures and our times.

And it’s not easy or without cost to reject a teaching that has been wrong for 1,500 years.

I think intent matters.  And when people of good intent know better, we usually try to do better.

But, friends,  in case you haven’t noticed there are people out there who do not have good intent.

There have always been people who have used religion and spirituality for selfish gain and if that means stealing, and killing and destroying, they’re OK with that.

In United Methodism we use 4 filters to help us discern between the teachings of the shepherd and the teachings of bandits.

• Scripture

• Wisdom Tradition

• Reason/Science

• Spiritual Experience

1. Scripture — If I want to know what God’s views are on a topic, the first place to look is in scripture.  Did you know that you can google a Bible story, by just putting a couple key words and “in the Bible” into the search bar and find the actual verse?  In this day and age, it’s super easy to look up various topics in the Bible or to… just for example… check if dialogue from Pulp Fiction is actually in the Bible or not.
2. Tradition – And by tradition, we don’t mean, “the way we’ve always done it around here,” we mean the collected theological and spiritual writings of Christianity.  The idea being that if I have a theological question, probably someone somewhere has also had a similar question and might have something useful to say about it. 

When Pope Leo was explaining Just War Theory and referencing Augustine of Hippo – this is what he was doing – he was referencing the wisdom tradition of the Church.  

Which, by the way, the Pope was being generous in referencing Just War Theory, because as someone who used to be an Evangelical Christian – who generally default to the earliest held positions of the first century church – Vance should have been taught total non-violence.  In the early church soldiers were expected to leave the military after they were baptized, because Jesus didn’t fight back, so neither should we.  Just War Theory was Augustine suggesting that perhaps it’s OK for Christian Political Leaders to defend their cities from attack, but not to make war on others. — Let me know if you would like to know more about Christian perspectives on war and peace…  There’s so  much more wisdom tradition on this subject!

3. Reason – is our next filter for discernment.  I often refer to this one as Science, because the origins of our Wesleyan filters are proto-scientific, Enlightenment era, so they kinda meant science when they said reason. The general idea being that much of the Bible was written in a pre-scientific era – so now that we have germ-theory, we understand why many Kosher laws, like washing your hands before you eat, make sense, and why some of them no longer make sense – like the Deuteronomy 23:12-14 rule that places for bathrooming must be outside the camp, far from the worship space.  Now that we have modern plumbing it’s reasonable to have bathrooms inside the church!  Using Reason as a filter for discernment also means looking at when scripture was written, where it was written, and recognizing the difference between poetry and a factual account.

4. Experience is our final filter for discernment.  What we mean by experience is: in my spiritual experience does this feel like something that Jesus would say or do?  Do I recognize the God who hears my prayers in the talking points and actions of this person claiming to represent God?

To put this all together let’s use these filters to test the idea that Compassion is a woke mind virus.

1.  Scripture –  There are so many passages in scripture that tell us to care for those in need and that God hears the cries of the suffering.  So I see in scripture that Compassion is something God wants for us and from us.
2. Christian Tradition – Within Christian Tradition there are theological arguments that justify a lack of compassion for certain people.  There are several Papal proclamations ranging from Pope Innocent III writing that those who rejected Christ’s message are less than human and therefore it’s OK to be violent towards them, to Popes Nicholas V and Alexander VI, who authorized the seizing of non-Christian lands and the subjugation of “enemies of the faith” which lead to colonization, slavery, and eventually racial superiority.   https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/manifest-destiny/ 

Teachings which are now widely rejected by most Christians, including the current Pope.

And, within the Christian Tradition is the concept of sanctuary from harm,  the founding of free Hospital orders, Mother Teresa and other saints, and too many writings to count on the concepts of Grace, Mercy, and loving our neighbors.

1. Reason –  Science has refuted the idea that people of other races are a lesser kind of human.  Science has also confirmed the idea that being Gay and Trans has a genetic component.  So many of the reasons for justifying a lack of compassion towards people who are different are not supported by reason.  And there is no evidence that compassion is caused by a virus or any other micro-organism!
2. Experience – In my spiritual experience, the Jesus that I know looks at me with compassion and expects me to view others with compassion as well.  As a matter of fact – God rarely lets me get away with being judgemental towards others!  As the Lord’s prayer says,  God seems to expect me to forgive others as I have been forgiven.

So, no, given the filters of Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience – I do not think that compassion is a woke mind virus from a Christian perspective.

Nor do I think that Vance understands Christian theology better than the Pope.

And I pray that Hegseth actually reads the Bible someday.  

I would recommend the gospel of Luke as a great place to start for anyone.

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.