Village Congregational Church
Weekly Message
—Liza Neal
- Luke 7:36 - 8:3
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” “A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.
“Embodied Healing”
Village Church
June 6, 2010
This story is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It is a text of dispute when it comes to the identity of Mary Magdalene, or at least it has been for the last few thousand years. It has been considered part of her story for a number of reasons. One is that it comes directly before Mary is identified by name for the first time. This is not very compelling, but a more intriguing reason is the act of anointing. Jesus is anointed three times, first in this story with an alabaster jar. Second just before his death. In this second anointing, she also brings an alabaster jar of ointment. Mark and Matthew do not say her name but Jesus is again in the home of Simon. In John they are in the home of Lazarus, and it is his sister Mary who anoints. Third and lastly, Mary Magdalene seeks to anoint Jesus in death but finds him resurrected instead.
Pope Gregory specifically proclaimed this passage in Luke as being the story of Mary Magdalene. However, he proclaimed the idea that this woman was a prostitute reformed by the ministry of Jesus. Nowhere in the passage does it say anything about this woman being a prostitute. There was the argument that “a woman in the city, a sinner” is a euphemism since Simon thinks Jesus should not associate with her based on “who and what she is.” However, this could mean many things. Still, the story of a redeemed prostitute caught hold and Mary Magdalene became the quintessential opposite of the Virgin Mary.
Today Mary Magdalene has been championed by feminist theology. She has been raised to her rightful role as a visionary leader and the first Apostle of Jesus’ movement. Luke’s story has been dismissed as a tool of oppressive men bent on keeping women out of positions of leadership and power.
Nonetheless, I do not want to get rid of it so fast. There is after all nothing in the story itself about this woman being a prostitute. Yes, she is a sinner forgiven, but we are all sinners forgiven. Whomever she is and whatever she is done, Jesus proclaims her as an example. She is lifted up above this Pharisee who looks down upon her and upon Jesus for allowing her to touch him. This is a story of redemption, and power turned upside down. It is an intimate story of love and touch, an unusual thread but constant in the myth of Mary Magdalene.
Throughout history from the Bible to the Gnostic Gospels through thousands of years of art, literature, and film up to and including today, Mary Magdalene is the mythic outsider. She has been a prostitute, a lesbian, an adulterer, an epileptic, possessed by demons, a pagan priestess, the Goddess, the wife of Jesus, and the most favored and only female apostle. She is the mythic representation of all the power and possibilities of anyone who stands outside the expectations of society, anyone who defies the powerlessness in which they have been placed, anyone who rises up from abuse, violence, and oppression to be first in the eyes of God.
This is a story that we need. The outcast redeemed and valued. The outsider seen for her worth. The lowly brought high. The oppressed turned into the leader. Brokenness and healing spiritual but not ethereal and philosophical, but rather rooted in the messy sweaty bloody body. The reasons and the details change, but the truth remains.
But let us return to the text itself. Jesus is having dinner with Simon. Simon is a Pharisee and interested in whether Jesus is prophet, messiah, or charlatan. Israel is a desert and people walked in sandals or bare feet. So whenever someone came to dinner one would offer them water to clean their feet. Simon, however, has overlooked this most basic act of hospitality. Fortunately Jesus will be cared for by another. Hearing where he will be that evening a woman brings an alabaster jar of ointment. Neither ointment nor alabaster are cheap so she obviously has some resources. She kneels at his feet and begins weeping. Clearly she knows and has already been moved by Jesus. We don’t know why. Was it his words? Was it his kindness? Was it his love? Was it an act of healing? Her struggles, the abuse of others, the challenge of survival, the oppression she lives with, her pain and grief pour out in her tears. She not only washes his feet from the dust of the road, but soothes his feet with ointment. She dries them not with a towel but with her own hair. Healing in the Bible often happens with the laying on of hands, and in this moment she heals Jesus. He too has been disrespected, exhausted, hurt, and looked down upon, and she offers him her healing touch. She serves him, as Jesus will later serve his disciples at the Last Supper.
Simon does not understand this act of love, because he does not understand the importance of love. He weighs knowledge and access, position and purity. He has much to be forgiven for but he neither recognizes it or seeks it. Simon does not know who he is any more than he knows who Jesus is. Yet this woman, an outcast, knows both.
This is the core of Jesus message: every one of us is forgiven and loved. This is the only thing that matters. Not who we are or what we have done, not what our position is society is, or how we are seen. Only our love, love that is a verb, demonstrated to us through action and demonstrated by us through action. It is written, “God is love, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
This is the core of Jesus message: those who are oppressed by society are our examples and our teachers. They are to be recognized for their inherent worth not just with words but with action. The way of Jesus demands justice for those who have none, humility from those who have had much, love based in action from and for the poor, the destitute, the sick, the sinful, the stranger, the imprisoned, the alien, the immigrant, those who face racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism, and on. Jesus said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”
Sometimes we are Simon, and sometimes we are Mary. Depending on which we require different paths, but either way, we are called to the way of the cross. Will you hold back waiting for signs and proof? Or will you be vulnerable, risk everything, pour out your sorrow, and offer your love?
Let us pray. - Genesis 11: 1-9
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and bum them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Acts 2:1-18
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. AII of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power. AII were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said,'They are filled with new wine."
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them. "Men of judea and an who live in Jerusalem, let this De Known to you, and listen to what say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: '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 people shall see visions, and your old people shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
'The Deep Confusions of Life"
Village Church
May 23, 2010
The story of the tower of Babel is easily misunderstood. When I was young one of my foster-brothers used this story as an illustration that the Bible and the God portrayed in it was oppressive. I felt in my heart this was not true but I did not yet have a different interpretation to offer. I did not yet have an answer for, "Why would God be threatened by our power, by all our proposals being possible?"
The people of Babel have a desire to for permanence and status. "Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." They will have unity if they are able to create a name for themselves. Believing in their own greatness they will build bigger and better things. The tower of Babel will just be the beginning. Life will get easier because we will improve it with all that they create. Generations will look back on all they have done, and they will be remembered. Sounds pretty familiar. Those are the words I hear ringing in the halls of Pharaoh's Egypt and Caeser's Rome. Those are the words pushing Americans west. Those are the words driving inventions in technology, science, and industry all over the world. Those are the words pushing the belief in progress. We will create and learn, Life will get better and easier. We will live longer. We will be able to work less. We will be happier, and we will be remembered.
And what's wrong with that? I really like having a washing machine and a microwave and a computer. Without access to a world of information and liturgy at my fingertips, just writing a sermon would take a hundred times as much time. I would not have the time to work two jobs. And I love my two jobs. And certainly Kelly and I would not be able to both work if we had to wash our clothes by hand and cook over fire. I won't even ponder the thought of not being able to turn on the heater as that is just too horrible to imagine. Ingenuity has made our lives better and easier, and I am not opposed to it.
And yet, God causes the people of Babel to speak different languages, to be scattered across the earth. God does not want everything we propose to be possible for us. God insists that we should have limits. As a child, and I admit as an adolescent and as a young adult, I did not want any limits. I was sure that I knew better. I wanted to do whatever I wanted. I wanted freedom.
Then I got a little older. I started to see that maybe some limits were a good thing. Maybe boundaries actually created some safety. Maybe there arc some things we should not be able to do. Maybe we should not have been able to split the atom and build the hydrogen bomb. Maybe we should not have been able to genetically modify food and create seeds that will not produce food. Maybe we should not have been able to create machines to drill deep for oil and have them gushing into our waters poisoning the ocean, the animals, and our own lives. Perhaps there are times when we need someone to interrupt our progress.
The story of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, is written as a redemption of the tower of Babel. People who have been scattered all over the earth speaking different languages come together. "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. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."
Miraculously they all understand one another. They have the opportunity to become united again, to lose their divisions that they might live and love and work as one. Why does God give them this ability to understand one another, this opportunity to defy the limits imposed so many thousands of years ago? Has humanity grown to the extent that we know the things we should do, and not do? Will humanity now seek true wisdom in life rather than permanence and glory?
It is hard to know what true wisdom is. Life is deeply confusing. I know that I have struggled through most of mine filled with questions. Who am I? What is my purpose? What should I be doing? How should I be living? Who should I love? What job should I take? What things should I buy? What choice is most ethical? Who should I vote for? How do I change things? Much of the time I am lost. I am not really sure what is most important. I would like to live easily. I would like to get paid, and get paid well. I would like to have shelter and travel and be happy. Oftentimes the world around me seems to threaten my wants and needs. When the very fabric of our lifestyle seems to be slipping away as the spiraling economy threatens our jobs, ethics get a bit murkier.
This past year at Hampshire the College has been in a budget crisis. Suddenly people, formerly generous and committed to social justice, are suspicious, secretive, and making choices based on whatever they think will serve their own life most beneficially. Their own status more important than treating others with kindness. The permanence of the college more important than the mission that it serves. We face budget crises here at the Village Church. And there are times when we have all risen to the occasion, offering the little that we have to the community trusting to the providence of God. And there are times when we have been vicious and selfish, short-sighted and driven by fear rather than the vision we serve. Each one of us has to make choices in the midst of stress and crises of all kinds. We do not want to be mean, or unethical. We just want to do what is best, but we are so often plunged into confusion, We lose clarity in the midst of worry and fear.
Last night after the Neilds concert, Kelly and I were walking to our car, which we had parked at the end of the street. The air was mild and filled with the fragrance of summer. The sound of the water rushing by, the insects singing, and the mooing of the cow accompanied us. The half-moon lit the path, our hands were clasped, and I knew for a moment peace and wisdom. How could I ever imagine there was anything more important than this? How could I not know that the earth and love were the heartbeat of God, and everything else just an illusion?
That moment was a spirit sighting, perhaps less dramatic than Pentecost, but no less a revelation of truth. At Pentecost, the people can be safely united in language because the in our world of confusion. Give us courage to speak and act. Give us the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to choose it even when it is not in our best interest. Help us to gather as your church that we might receive your spirit, that we might remember who we are and whose we are, that we might live following Your footsteps, rest in Your guidance, and trust in Your grace. Amen. - Acts 16:20-34
When they had brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe." The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
John 17:20-26
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
"That They May All Be One"
Village Church
May 16, 2010
In the Gospel of John, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he prayed asking God "that they may all be one." This was the motto chosen when the Congregationalist, Evangelical, Reformed, and Christian denominations joined in 1952 to become the United Church of Christ. They had different ways of worshipping and different theological ideas. They understood Jesus' prayer, not to be a call to agree with each other, or to smooth out their differences or to choose which way was better. They understood the prayer to be one as a call to be in relationship with one another. So in the United Church of Christ we have no creed or doctrine that we have to believe, no one prayer we have to prayer or idea we must embrace. Instead we promise to be in relationship to one another, and in relationship to God. In this connection with one another and this connection to Jesus, we would know the love of God. And that would change everything.
That was Jesus prayer, "that the love with which You have loved me may be in them, and I in them." That was Jesus prayer before he ascended into heaven. Jesus' ascension is a part of his story that we do not tend to put as much emphasis on here in our modem age. It is a bit too supernatural for us. Unlike the people of the 1st century we know that above the sky are planets, stars, galaxies. Rising up into the sky sounds more like something an alien would do. As for heaven, well, hopefully it's around here someplace but disappearing into it is not something we necessarily imagine we can learn something from.
Yet, we look to Jesus life to discern how to live. We look to Jesus' death to understand what we must be willing to give. We look to Jesus' resurrection to embrace the promise that the power of love and life will always triumph in the end. Each one of those moments teaches us, has a word, a metaphor, a truth that can alter our life. Each part of Jesus story is a part of our story. So what then does the ascension have to do with us?
In the Acts of the Apostles' story that we heard today, Paul and Silas are thrown in jail for talking about Jesus and healing people. Their words are threatening the livelihoods of the townspeople because slaves are being set free by the message of God's radical transforming love. People are abandoning the lives they are expected to live to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They are throwing off their allegiance to the state as they find their allegiance to God alone.
Over the course of Paul's life, he spends quite a bit of time in jail. Many of the letters written and gathered in the New Testament were written while Paul was in prison. However, this story is the very first time Paul is put into jail. This is the first moment that he is confronted with the real world drastic consequences of the life that he has chosen. He was a Roman citizen, a strict Pharisee with the power and practice of ordering others to be beaten and flogged, putting others in prison. Embracing Jesus he became powerless. He became the one beaten and flogged. He became the one imprisoned.
I don't know about you, but I think I would have been a little depressed. I imagine I would feel scared, maybe even lost and abandoned. But Silas and Paul do not descend into fear or despair. Paul and Silas ascend.
Bleeding alone in the dark they sing hymns. When night fell in Haiti after the earthquake with no lights, no homes, no tents, no food, friends and family missing, they sang hymns in the darkness. They do not descend into loss and despair though surrounded by hell. They ascend.
While Paul and Silas are in jail, an earthquake happens. They have the opportunity to escape. Yet they know that if they do, the guard will be punished. The guard will be put into jail and possibly executed. The guard is so sure of this, and so afraid of the manner in which he would be executed, that he starts to take his own life instead. But Paul and Silas stop him. Instead of fleeing for their lives like any reasonable human being, they sat there in the midst of the rubble. In fact all of the prisoners stayed. They were all transformed that day.
Paul and Silas have absolutely nothing inside those prison walls. Yet Jesus has given them all that they need. The guard becomes a follower of Jesus. He loses his fear so thoroughly that he sets them free without remorse or concern for what might happen to him. He tends their wounds and feeds them. He saves their lives; yet he feels that they have saved him.
In the midst of a life lived in dungeons surrounded by the mistakes and fears of others, he has ascended to the right hand of God. They have become one.
There may be times when we feel trapped. Their may be times when we feel afraid, lost in the dark, alone and abandoned. But God is always with us. Jesus has given us all that we need.
In the ascension Jesus become one with God. He is fully transformed. He lives, he dies, he is resurrected, he ascends. In our baptism we commit ourselves to following in the footsteps of Jesus. The plunging into water and rising up again is a ritualized metaphor for the call to die to our old selves and rise again to a new self in Christ. Just as we are called to die and rise again, so are we called to ascend. Each day we choose again whether we are going to continue the path Jesus has set before us. When we are plunged into fear and despair, when we are terrified and overwhelmed with burdens, when the world is filled with injustice and sorrow, when we are trapped with nothing, we are called to ascend. We are called to be transformed. We are called to be one with one another. We are called to be one with God.
Let us pray. -
Acts 16:9-15
During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman Colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the Sabbath we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place for prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.
“Invisible Foundations”
May 9, 2010
Village Church
There was no man in Macedonia; there was only Lydia. When we hear the stories of Scripture, most of the time we miss pieces that would have been the most dramatic for the first century listeners of the story. We miss the subtleties which completely alter the meaning. Our lack of understanding of the history and culture of the time and the details of the history of early Christianity whitewashes the story. This passage seems like a simple somewhat boring story of Paul and Silas’s movement from one part of the world to another in their mission to spread the word. In fact this is a shocking and revolutionary story throwing open the boundaries of what is possible for anyone, and most especially for women.
Lydia is a gentile. We know this from the fact that she is from Thyatira. Thyatira is the name of the modern Turkish city of Akhisar. It lies in the far west of Turkey, south of Istanbul and almost due east of Athens, about 50 miles from the Mediterranean. The second way, in which people were named in this time of no last names, was by where they were from. This conveyed not only place but also ethnicity. Of course the first way people were named is by who their family was. In the case of a woman, they were named by whom they were married too. Lydia, like many of the early Christian women, is not defined by her husband. Even widows were referred to by their dead husbands. Even a widow’s household will not be considered their own but in the possession of her husband or his family. Except for the women of early Christianity, who stand on their own names, who are the masters of their own households.
Lydia is called “a worshipper of God.” This means that she was studying Judaism. She believed not in the gods of the Roman pantheon depicted all around her that she had been raised with, but in the one invisible Adonai of the Jews.
Lydia is a dealer in purple cloth. In a time of women’s typical seclusion from the public sphere, she is a businesswoman who deals in the marketplace. On top of this she deals in purple cloth. Purple is extremely rare and expensive. It involves a mixtures of dyes imported from far away locations in the world, difficult to import. Purple denotes not just wealth, but also particular roles. Purple is the color of power, both spiritual and material. Purple is the color of priests and kings.
Shorty after the meeting and conversion of Lydia, Paul and Silas are thrown into prison. The Romans considered them “atheists” because they did not worship the Roman gods. The gods of Rome and the rulers were one. So one who did not worship those gods was by definition in opposition to the state. Nevertheless, due to a miraculous earthquake, the conversion of the Roman guards, and their own Roman citizenship, they are released. They are told to leave the city, but first they return to Lydia’s. “And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brothers and sisters there, they comforted them, and departed.”
In this short time, Lydia had become the leader of a Household church, not just of her own family but also those strangers made family becoming brothers and sisters in Christ. In early Christianity, believers had no sanctuaries or cathedrals. They met in homes where they worshipped, studied, and ate together. Women are often barely visible in history. They exist in a few lines of text. One of the major contributions of Feminist Biblical Criticism is the idea of reading the silences, delving into these few lines and the truths behind these words.
Paul enters Macedonia looking for the man in his vision, the man who called to him to come and help them. He never finds that man in Macedonia. We hear no more of this man. He is silent, and what we find instead are women. Paul is not looking for them. He and his male companions have gone outside of the gate of the city to pray, because it is not safe for them to pray inside. On the outside in that luminal vulnerable place, they find a group of women gathered. At the time, societies lived largely segregated by gender. Though they married and had children, their days of work and worship were spent with only those who shared their gender. They would have very little contact with men, particularly men outside their family. Like Jesus, these early followers of Christianity, cross the boundaries of gender and familiarity, talking to women and strangers.
In Roman religion, women could be priestesses in a single gender setting. They had temples to goddesses like Diana, Persephone, and Aphrodite which no man could enter. However, these were again separate worship spaces and had no power in the public sphere the way male priests and male gods did. In Judaism, the religion in which Lydia believed though she was not a Jew, there were no female priests or priestesses.
In the United Church of Christ, we are proud of the fact that we ordained the first woman minister way back in the early 17th century in Rhode Island. She led her own Bible study first for women only, and soon for men as well. She made her own theological interpretations which she attributed to divine inspiration. Her congregation was encouraged to engage in their own interpretation and criticism of the Bible and religious practice. They believed in free grace. They decried the lack of women’s rights and racial prejudice in particular towards Native Americans. The male Puritan leaders were threatenedby her religious power, the dedication of her followers, and their political activities. Anne Hutchinson was persecuted and attacked, her fifteenth pregnancy ending in miscarriage due to imprisonment and mistreatment. Yet she persevered in her calling and her spiritual leadership.
We should be proud of the fact that we ordained Anne Hutchinson, and certainly she is the first woman ordained in the way that we think of it now. Yet, one of the truly powerful and revolutionary truths of our faith is that female leaders are the foundation of Christianity. We say that Jesus founded Christianity, but he preached a reinterpretation of Judaism and an extending of fellowship to all, not a new religion. We say then that Paul and Peter are the founders of Christianity. But it is Mary Magdalene who has the first vision of the resurrection Christ, the vision that transforms the followers of Christ from a frightened defeated group hiding behind locked doors into bold, empowered leaders who set out to transform the world. It is Lydia and the household ministers, who were mostly women, who were the basis of the continuity of the faith. The missionary apostles get the glory but their conversions, miracles, and message would have been lost without the daily tending and the creation of community led by women.
So today on Mother’s Day let us celebrate and be inspired by, not only our mothers and grandmothers and aunts, but let us also celebrate and be inspired by the mothers of our faith who led and nurtured the radically inclusive message of Jesus from the first century to today.
Let us pray. - Acts 11:1-19
Now the apostles and the believers who were also in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send it to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
“When they heard this, they were silenced”
Village Church
May 2, 2010
Being unclean in the first century meant that they were separated from the rest of the community. The unclean could not eat with anyone else because that would make others unclean. They could not touch anyone else. They could not even enter the temple of God to worship alone. Anyone could become unclean for a short time and then become clean. For instance, any time someone sinned they became unclean. When soldiers returned from war, after women’s’ period, after sex, after birth, while sick, after going to a funeral, after having contact with someone in any of these categories, and so on, they needed to be cleansed. After a designated period of time and the designated sacrifices, they would become clean again. Then they could return to eating, worshipping, and living their usual lives. However, there were those who could never be made clean. Anyone with an incurable sickness, anyone who was physically or mentally disabled, anyone who was castrated whether by accident or choice or lifestyle, and anyone who was not of the same religion and ethnic group. Like unclean animals that could never be eaten or used for sacrificed, these people could never be a part of the community. They could never be eaten with, they could never be loved, they could never enter into worship.
We scoff at these categories now. But are there not people in our modern world that we consider unclean now? Some of the categories have changed, but some are not so different. In some countries, women are still being set on fire for adultery; the disabled are still being abandoned; laws are being put into place even as we speak making it legal to kill homosexuals. We may shake our heads, but then we stand by and do nothing. Even in our own country, people are still being murdered, shunned, and denied equal human rights. Churches are still preaching hate and exclusion in the name of God.
Yesterday Kelly and I were at Pride, watching as church after UCC church marched by. For years whenever I saw churches or parents marching in Pride parades, it would make me cry. I still get teary when I see the parents actually. It is hard to describe the pain of having those who love you, those who represent God to you, tell you that you are going to hell. Even if you don’t believe in hell, it tears you up inside. It makes you question the worth of your own life.
I can see it on the faces of the young people marching. That half-frightened, half-empowered look of marching for the first time, being open for the first time and receiving cheers instead of violence for the first time. I have a student who was homeless at 16 because his parents kicked him out for being gay. He has no home outside the school. Last week another student told me that he was in the process of getting confirmed at his church back home. He wanted to know whether I thought he should tell the priest that he is gay. How could I know that his church would not exclude him? How could I know whether they would tell him that he is God’s child, or tell him that he is the embodiment of sin?
During the process of studying whether to become Open and Affirming, churches often ask why we have to write a statement, why we have to put it on our bulletins, signs, and websites, why we have to give ourselves a special designation. We are already open and affirming. Everyone is already welcome. Sometimes this is a reflection of the fact that it is not really true. Sometimes though everyone really is welcome, and folks do not understand why it is necessary to say so. Usually we explain that people who have been excluded need to hear it out loud. People who have been shunned and attacked by other churches need to be told that this is a church where that will not happen.
That is not the only reason though. Stating that we are open and affirming is also a witness to the wider Christian community. We are making a statement, not just for those who have been excluded but also for those who are excluding others in the name of God.
When Peter ate with Gentiles, he was criticized for his ungodly behavior. He had to answer to his community. Why was he choosing to make himself unclean? Why was he welcoming those who by the very definition could not be brought into the temple of God?
To believe that the unclean were in fact clean was a radical change in religious practice and a radical shift in the understanding of what God wanted. The laws of cleanliness were not instituted as an act of prejudice. They thought God wanted them to be pure to come into the presence of the Holy. These laws protected their health and well-being; they aided their physical and cultural survival. Keeping separate from the sick, only eating certain animals and in certain ways, being thoroughly clean after contact with blood or any bodily fluid, all kept them healthier in a time without an understanding of germs. Keeping separate from other religions and ethnic groups insulated them to some degree from cultural change and loss. They were not bad people. They had good intentions and logical reasoning. Why would God ask them to risk their health and allow their culture to change? Were not health and religious practice the most important aspects of life?
Jesus had shown them a different way. He embraced the unclean. He invited his followers to risk and even give up their lives. He abandoned religious practice that did not serve the wellness of his spirit and the spirit of others. And yet, mostly he did this within the Jewish community. There are striking examples of Jesus reaching out to Gentiles, but it is easy to see how they might be overlooked in the overall narrative. Now Jesus was gone and Peter did not have the gospels to refer to since they were not yet written. He had to show that he was he not being sinful. He had to show that those who stand on the outside are also connected to God. They too are blessed with the Holy Spirit. They too hear the voice of God.
So Peter tells them of visions. The Gentile saw an angel commanding him to call Peter to his home. Peter saw the Spirit descend upon the Gentile just as it did upon Jesus at his baptism and upon the apostles on Pentecost. In Peter’s dream, the unclean animals were made clean. And it was not enough that Peter know these animals were now clean. It was not enough that Peter declare these animals clean. Peter had to eat them. He had to take them into his own being. He had to touch, embrace, and bring within that which had always been separate. This in fact was the new work of God. They were not commanded to make a new religious practice or a new sect. They were commanded to make community with those who stand on the outside.
Liberation Theology takes this a step further and states that not only do those standing on the outside hear the voice of God, but that they hear it more clearly. That God has a preference for them, and if we are to hear God’s word than we must listen to them. Acts tell us that “when they heard this they were silenced.” Voices of Jesus’ followers were silenced. Voices of misunderstanding and criticism were silenced. Voices of exclusion and hate were silenced. They heard a new understanding of God and it catapulted them into silent reflection. It caused them to change.
For Peter and these followers, the Spirit was visible in a way it often is not to us. We hear of the Spirit descending and we are doubtful. It happens in our midst and we miss it. We imagine that these things only happened in Biblical times, that revelation ended with Jesus’ resurrection. There is no new wisdom to be given. No new changes to be made in our theology and in our way of life. Yet here in the Bible itself we see major changes happening after Jesus is gone. God is still speaking to the disciples though Jesus is gone, and their faith and ideas are changing because of it. God is still speaking to us though Jesus and the disciples are gone. Our faith and ideas should change because of it.
There is a new UCC add called the Language of God. If you have access to YouTube, look it up. It shows images from all kinds of people all over the world, all ages, all sexual orientations, loving, speaking, healing, protesting. The words love, justice, compassion, and so one flash across the images. This is the language of God that God is still speaking in our world in our lives today. Peter asks, “Who was I that I could hinder God?” He sees that the work of God is not what he thought it would be, and not what he has been doing. Sometimes we hinder God even in the midst of doing what we think is right. It is easy to see how others are hindering God. It is hard to have the courage to admit how we are hindering God.
Every Sunday before I preach, I pray the same prayer. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. I say this prayer so that I can open up to the Spirit. I say this prayer in the hopes that what I offer to you and what you take from it might be more than the thoughts of my mind. I say this prayer that we might be able to change when the Spirit moves.
It is much easier to be told do this and do not do this. These are the rules. End of story. But we have been called not to a set of laws, but to a relationship. We have been called to risk our health and our religious practices, to offer up everything we hold dear to the work and love of God’s changing Spirit. So let us keep our eyes open for the Spirit’s movement. Let keep our ears open for God’s words, that we might not hinder the work of God but be a part of the healing, reconciling, radically inclusive Spirit that is even now transforming our world. Let us pray: open our eyes that we might see Your face. Open our ears that we might hear Your voice. Open our minds that we might be able to change. Open our mouths that we might speak Your words. Open our hands that we might offer our service. Open our hearts that we might love. Amen. John 20: 19-31
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked out of fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and put my hands in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe!” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
Acts 5:27-41
When they had brought the apostles, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with his teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at God’s right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey.”
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, ordered them to be put outside for a short time. Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these people. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these people and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them- in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”
They were convinced by him, and when they called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name of Jesus.
“Origins”
Village Church
April 11, 2010
The author of the Gospel of John is writing about 100–150 years after Jesus’ death. With this story, he has Jesus blessing himself and his community. He is after all the one who has not seen and yet has believed. He is also placing his own gospel above that of another gospel written at the same time. The other gospel was just as controversial and just as popular. It was called the Gospel of Thomas. Thomas’ community was just as strong as John’s, though they tended to be a bit more mystical and a bit less angry. But John’s gospel won out, at least for the time being.
And this particular story took such hold that Thomas the Twin became Doubting Thomas.
Yet this is not the only story of Thomas in John’s Gospel. There is another one that we tend to overlook or forget. Jesus is back in Galilee, that backwater of poverty and discontent that bred most of the messiahs and revolutionaries. He is back where he is safe, and suddenly he wants to return to Judea. He wants to return to the danger zone, to the center of political and ecclesial power. The disciples try to reason with him, “Rabbi, the people were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Or in other words, are you crazy? We can’t go back there! We’ll get killed! But Jesus is insistent. He is going back, with or without them. The disciples’ discussion about whether or not they should stay behind is left out of the text. However, it clearly happens because it is Thomas who says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” It is not Jesus or Peter that convinces them. It is Thomas, Thomas the Brave.
For some reason it is easier to remember the bad things in our lives. Is this true for anyone else, or is it just me? I can obsess about my failures, my misgivings, sad or difficult memories, while the good ones, the moments of joy, my strengths and successes go unminded. Yet it is those who moments in which we are the people that God has called us to be, those moments when we are truly our selves. It is those moments that God remembers.
Whenever we have a thought, a neural pathway is created in our brains. Each time we think that thought, that pathway gets bigger. Each time that pathway gets bigger, it becomes easier to travel down that pathway rather than another. In other words, the more that we dwell on our successes, the easier it is to succeed.
Sometimes we look around at our selves, at our lives, our church, our country, our world, and we get discouraged. Or worse, we get cynical, sure that nothing will change whatever we or anyone else tries. Yet the Bible tells us that whatever is of God, will not be able to be overthrown.
What is it that you fear? The dying of the earth? The recession of the country? The dying of the church? The brokenness of your family? The choices you have made, or not made? Listen to the words of the Pharisee Gamaliel: "whatever is of human origin will fail, whatever is of God, will not be able to be overthrown!"
Many things rise and fall. Many things live and die. We live in a brief time while God lives in eternity. On top of that, our culture tells us that we must have things right this instant. Yet we cannot tell success in an instant. The disciples might have thought they and their movement was a failure as they gathered hiding in the upper room. Their followers might have thought they and their movement was a failure as century after century they were persecuted and executed by their government. Instead, their faith grew stronger. Instead, their movement spread. Even though it spread amongst those who had no power, derided as the fantasy of women and slaves, it grew stronger.
I often think that the good news of the gospel has gotten lost in the intervening centuries. Somehow between the fourth and the twenty-first we have gone from poverty to wealth, from boundless welcome to exclusion and hate, from non-violence and compassion to force and punishment. And then we look around and wonder, why does no one want to go to church anymore? Why are we afraid of God and each other? Why do we struggle with financial loss and dwindling resources?
Yet Jesus never promised us financial success. Jesus never promised that things would look good. Jesus never promised that we would be secure. In fact, he spoke of persecution and loss. In fact he spoke of threshing and pruning. Yes, Jesus said that mourning will turn into dancing. But first there will be mourning. First there will be pruning. Not only dead branches are snipped off, but even those still living, not so they might be lost but rather so that the tree itself might burst more fully into bloom.
So do not fear whatever in your life seems to be dying, whether it is the country, the church, the community, parts of your identity, friends, values, clarity. For whatever is of human origin will fail, but whatever is of God, will never be overthrown
God is our origin, our beginning, and our end, our alpha and omega. Let us not be afraid, but rather trust in the Living God, who was, who is, and who is to come. And let us live accordingly.
Pray with me. Jesus, help us remember your words: Beloved friends, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Help us Jesus, to live boldly whatever the circumstances, to take risks in pursuit of your kingdom of justice and peace. Amen.-
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went to the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrapping lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrapping lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head, and the other at the feet. “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni” (which means teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have to yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” and she told them that he had said these things to her.
I Corinthians 15:20-22
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
“Shifting Resurrection”
Village Church
April 4, 2010
There are many resurrections. There is the resurrection we experience every year, when the dying gray and white world of winter bursts forth into the living rainbow of spring. There is the resurrection of the soil, when after fires race through blackening the the earth the soil is somehow be transformed from dry dirt to nutrient rich soil growing even more than it did before. And of course we there is the resurrection of Jesus. The four gospels share four different versions of how it happened. Today we heard the Gospel of John’s story.
We enter the story in the garden. A garden is a place of beauty and rest, but right now it is a place of sorrow and grief. Mary is going to tend to her beloved in death as she tended to him in life. When she finds the tomb empty, she races off to their friends. Peter and the other disciples are all in hiding. They are afraid they too are going to be executed. Still, they race to see if it is true, and lo and behold, the tomb is empty. Understandably, they assume that someone has stolen the body. Another humiliation. They do not understand this any better than they understood Jesus’ teachings. They cannot wait, they do not want to stand so baldly in the face of their grief.
Mary is not willing to leave. She is strong enough to be able to remain at the crucifixion while others fled. She is strong enough to go to the tomb with embalming spices while others are hiding. She is strong enough to embrace her grief. I am sure that she was afraid. She was there. She saw what the state could do. But her love was stronger than her fear. I wonder if Paul and the other disciple had stayed, if Jesus would have revealed himself to them as well. Either way, it is Mary who stays, and Mary whom Jesus appears to.
When Mary tells them that she has seen their Teacher, they do not believe her. Even though they saw the tomb was empty, they do not bother this time to check. It is not surprising though. It is an absurd story. When something dies, it is dead.
A few weeks back Kelly and I took a group of college students to New Orleans. We stayed in a church called Annunciation Mission in the neighborhood called Broadmoor. After Katrina, Broadmoor was completely devastated. Weeks and weeks later still no one had returned. The city government decided to declare the neighborhood of Broadmoor dead. They had drawn green circles around Broadmoor and certain other neighborhoods where they planned to take the land. They planned to take the land and not rebuild.
Legally, they had to have a public meeting to notify folks. Since no one had returned, they figured this was no problem. At the most, maybe 40 people would show. The staff from church for instance who’d been able to set up a trailer outside their ruined sanctuary would be there but not too many others. The day came, and 400 people showed up. The city had to back down, and the land was saved. But still it was a neighborhood in ruins.
New Orleans is a city sharply divided by race and class. Even though Broadmoor is mixed racially and economically, residents kept to their own. Until that day. Without the help of the city, the state, or the federal government, the people of Broadmoor came together across race and class lines to save the neighborhood they all loved. Working with each other and with volunteers from all over the country, 85% of the people who lived there have been able to return. They created a 25-year plan. This plan is not only to rebuild, but also to rebuild better than before. To address poverty. To address their abysmal educational system. They have built homes, created programs to help people with low incomes build able to own their homes, set up tutoring programs, summer camps, open pantries, and more. And they are only three years into their plan. The people of Broadmoor built relationships with one another that did not exist before, and in those relationships transformed their neighborhood and found their own resurrection.
It is through relationship that Mary experiences resurrection. When she was sick and isolated from any community by her demons, she is made whole through Jesus. Put down and overlooked by the disciples, she is raised up as an example and leader through Jesus. When he comes to her in the garden, she does not know whom he is. He looks different. He has been changed. But then he calls out her name. It is the love created through their relationship that reveals his resurrection.
Mary focuses on the transformation of her beloved friend, who healed and taught her. When Paul tells the story, it is all about the symbol. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”
Paul is easily misunderstood. It is understandable since he speaks in highly symbolic language with many layers from a language and background that are not our own. There was no concept at this time of original sin. Paul is not talking about original sin or substitutiary atonement or Christ as a sacrifice. Adam represents the failing of humanity. We are all flawed. We are all broken, and we all die. This is a truth of our existence. The Christ represents the best of humanity. We can all be sanctified. We can all be healed. We can all be transformed. This also is a truth of our existence. A truth that the resurrection is meant to reveal. Jesus, who called those who follow him, brother and sister, said, “you will do greater things than even I have done.”
Yet Mary clings to Jesus, Paul clings to theological principles, and Broadmoor clings to its own neighborhood. Jesus last words to Mary are, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” When she and the disciples met him, Jesus invited them to follow. He demonstrated a path- a path of simple living, challenging boundaries and injustice, and healing transformative love. This path led to death, resurrection, and ascension to the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet he had told them the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. The Kingdom of Heaven was within. This death, resurrection, and ascension were not about the after-life. It was about right now, this moment, this community, this world, this self, this relationship.
If we are to ascend, then we must let go. We must let go of our fears, let go of our ideas, let go of our divisions. We must not hold back. We must give our whole selves, our heart, soul, mind, and our very bodies to be changed.
The story of the resurrection is a promise that Love will never be defeated. No matter what, no matter how difficult and painful. That all failure, all cowardice, all brokenness, all evil, all grief and loss, all illness and death, all things can be transformed. This transformation is revealed to us in the story of Jesus and in the earth itself, but that transformation will only come through our hands. Through our willingness unclench our fists and reach out, to experience the times of grief and death, and then step into our own resurrection, that we too might be a light for another’s’ transformation. That we too might be a light for the transformation of the world.
Let us pray -
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it? How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
“Gathering Chickens”
Village Church
February 28, 2010
Artist depictions of this passage always have Jesus standing atop a hill gazing down upon the city of Jerusalem, sage and sorrowful. If I were going to paint it (and I had artistic talent) I would paint Jesus in great frustration surrounded by chickens all racing about in different directions as he chased after them. His followers stand by staring in consternation wringing their hands as if that were helpful.
We are the brood- not just in my painting, but also in the passage. We are the chickens. From what I have heard about chickens this is not very flattering. I have heard that they are not very bright and somewhat ornery. They are always clucking about, neither leading or follow. Now, this metaphor for humanity is starting to sound very fitting! I have read though that these ideas are more about our conceptions of them. According to animal behaviorists, chickens have complex social hierarchies, the ability to experience joy and depression, the ability to understand objects as particular and having their own existence, and thus both conscious and intelligent. This too sounds a fitting metaphor for humanity. There is—not just within humanity— but also within each one of us both ends of the spectrum.
Regardless of our abilities, or lack thereof, our unruliness and orneriness, Jesus desires to gather us under wing like a hen gathers her brood. It is a loving maternal image. Jesus wants to comfort us, care for us, protect us, and keep us safe. The mystic Julian of Norwich saw Jesus as Mother. She wrote:
“The Second Person of the Trinity is our mother in nature, in our substantial making. In him we are grounded and rooted, and he is our mother by mercy in our sensuality, by taking flesh…Thus our mother, Christ, in whom our parts are kept unseparated, works in us in various ways. For in our mother, Christ, we profit and increase, and in mercy he reforms and restores us, and by virtue of his passion, death, and resurrection joins us to our substance. This is how our mother, Christ, works in mercy in all his beloved children...The natural loving mother, who recognizes and knows the need of her child, takes care of it most tenderly, as the nature and condition of motherhood will do. And continually, as the child grows in age and size, she changes what she does, but not her love. When the child has grown older, she allows it to be punished, breaking down vices to enable the child to receive virtues and grace…This work, with all that is fair and good, our Lord does in those by whom it is done. Thus he is our mother in nature, by the working of grace in the lower part of love for the higher. And he wills that we know it, for he wills to have all our love fastened to him.”
All our love is not fastened to him, however, and Jesus is both sad and frustrated. You can tell because he starts speaking in hyperbole. It is not really impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem. In fact prophets are killed all over the world, by all people in all places in all times.
Jesus knows that his time is coming. I do not think it has anything to do with having a vision of the future, but rather the reality of a constant and growing threat around him. The Pharisees who are usually the ones depicted as his enemies are there warning him! The government is planning on arresting you and giving you capital punishment. Jesus does not respond with fear or escape. In fact, he gives them his schedule. He is a bit of a daredevil you might say. You want to come and kill me— here’s where I’ll be.
And where is that? Casting out demons and performing cures. Jesus terrifying power is his power to heal, his power to transform people’s bodies, minds, and lives. Jesus ministry begins in healing and ends in healing. In the Gospel of Luke, the first thing Jesus does after declaring himself in the synagogue is cast out a demon. Casting out demons is a pretty strange and confusing concept for us twenty-first century scientists. We see images of the Exorcist in our heads while assuring ourselves that this must be the way that the ancient people conceived of mental illness. Perhaps Jesus was casting out a manifestation of evil. Perhaps Jesus was casting out depression, illness, and trauma. The point, however, is that they were being cast out.
Healing happened. People were restored to themselves, their families, and their communities. They were broken and they became whole. This healing was more important than Jesus safety. He sought then to teach them that they might become healers as well, that they might bring this restorative power to their own communities. The State, much as we would like it to, does not seek to restore. It seeks to control and maintain. Yet even torture and death cannot quench that restorative power.
Last week I invited you to make room for reflection. This week I invite you to seek healing. Healing is more important than safety, more important than where we are going. We are really just chickens running about in complete vulnerability. But God is seeking to gather us under Her wing like a hen gathers her brood. Let us, like the psalmist, seek shelter under those wings.
Let us pray.
“Hear my cry, O God, attend to my prayer. From the ends of the earth, I will cry unto You. When our hearts are overwhelmed, lead us to the rock that is higher. Let us abide with You forever, let us take shelter under Your wings.” Amen - Deuteronomy 26:1–11
When you have come into the land that the Lord, our God, is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of the fruit of the ground which harvest from the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord, your
God, will choose as a dwelling for God's name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to her, "I declare to the Lord, our God, that I have come to the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us." When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord, your God, you shall make a response before the Lord, your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and all outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and God brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, 0 Lord, have given me." You shall set it down before the Lord, your God. Then you, together with the Levites
and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebarte with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
Luke 4:1-13
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, lie was famished. The devil said to him, "you are the Son of God, command this Stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "As is written, one does not live by bread alone. "
Then the devil led him up and showed him in all instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him,"As is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God."
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written 'God will command God's angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, '"It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
"Temptations in the Wilderness""
Village Church
February 20, 2010
The offering of first fruits was one of the most important festivals of the year for the Hebrew people. Since they had become an agricultural society, the offering of first fruits was quite apparent and literal. The first of that which their work had yielded was right in front of them, visible and tangible. For those of us who no longer live this lifestyle, our first fruits are not so obvious. We do not see what we truly have, and do not know then what it is we should give.
In the Hebrew festival, each person had to recount the history of the people. They had to remember who they were, not as an individual, but rather as a member of their community. They had to remember what they had been through and how they had gotten to the place where they were now. They had to call to mind that time when they were oppressed. They had to call to mind the time when they were lost, without home or direction. They had to remember that God had been with them when they were homeless and desperate, and God was with them in their bounty. In both of these, they had God to thank. They remember in order to live with gratitude and humility, in order to have perspective.
Like the ancient Hebrews, Jesus spends time in the wilderness. For him it is forty days rather than forty years. Still forty days with no food probably felt like forty years! Like the ancient Hebrews, Jesus wanders in the wilderness that he might find his identity and his purpose. He has just been baptized and had this amazing spiritual experience. Clearly he has been chosen. But for what? Is now the time? Is he ready? Where will it lead? How will he get there? How will he support himself on the way? What about his family?
All these things Jesus ponders as he fasts in the wilderness. Then, Jesus completes his time of reflection. The forty days are over and he is ready to return to the regular realities of daily life, eating and drinking. "He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished." This is the moment when the temptations come, not before, not when he is in the midst of the struggle, but when the struggle is over.
The devil in this passage is a figure that historically speaking has not yet made the transition from an obstruction or adversary to a figure of evil. He is not the horned demon with a kingdom of devils to command. He has no power of his own, but only the power to confuse one's choices. He is like the wolf in the forest tempting Red Riding Hood. He invites her to wander in the forest gathering flowers so she might get lost. He dresses like Grandma that she might trust him. Despite the teeth and the claws and the physical strength, he has to resort to trickery and seduction. Red Riding Hood is still the one to choose whether to stop or go on, whether to see the truth lying in front of her or believe the lie.
The temptations in the wilderness are connected to power, not the power of evil, but rather the power to choose. In the first, Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread. Knowing that Jesus teaches in parables and stories, we read this not literally, but rather looking for the meaning in the metaphor. Instead of taking the challenges of life, that which is heavy, and learning from them—avoid the stones all together. Don't allow your life to be uncomfortable. Don't allow yourself an empty belly. Take the easy road. Take the resources that you need regardless of whatever consequences it might have. Do not concern yourself with justice or righteousness, concern yourself with comfort and sustenance. How many of us have given into this temptation in one way or another?
In the second temptation, Jesus is offered glory and authority. He is offered a dictatorship of the world. He can be Caesar, or Alexander the Great. Authority now, and glory throughout history. Stop concerning yourself with trying to heal and empower people. Stop concerning yourself with creating community and redistributing wealth. Instead of giving away what you have, take what you want. Want to make a different kind of world? Then take power and you can force people to live the lives you want them to live. It is not just our politicians that fall into this kind of temptation.
In the third, Jesus is tempted to throw himself down upon the rocks that the angels might save him. Don't just trust that you are loved. Prove it. Put yourself in harm's way. Manipulate the emotions of others to inflate your own ego. Manipulate others' love to demonstrate how important you are, how powerful you are that they will drop everything and rush to save you. Rather than showing your love to them, make them serve you.
These temptations are our own. Like Jesus, we have the power to choose. No matter what situation or possibility we are faced with. Even when it seems like we are trapped, we still have the power to choose. So often though, we cannot see our way clear. We do not see these temptations for what they are. We do not see the stones. We only see bread.
This is why we have rituals. We have rituals in order to see the truth. The Hebrew ritual of first fruits reminded them to see themselves not just as the wealthy landowners, but also as the enslaved and oppressed. The ritual of first fruits reminded them that all they had was a gift. That God, the giver of all gifts, was with them in good times and bad.
This Sunday begins our ritual of Lent. Lent is a forty-day period when we willingly enter into the wilderness. Some fast, some give something up. The point is that we do something each day that reminds us that this is a time of contemplation and reflection. This is a time to seek clarity and perspective. To ask ourselves hard questions. To discern whether or not we are living the life that God has called us to. What is our purpose? Where are we headed? Where have we been? Are we doing what is right? What are we to do next?
Jesus reminds us that we shall not live by bread alone. It Is not just shelter, food, water but also truth, peace, healing, compassion, and justice that we live by. Jesus reminds us that we are to worship only God, not money or power or position. We are called to serve. Jesus reminds us that we are not totry and manipulate God. We are called to trust.
We are tempted every day of our lives. It is hard to see things for what they are. Take these next forty days to focus, to consider, withdrawing from the usual distractions and flow of your life. Be honest with yourself Look at your life squarely. Look Jesus in the face. See what you find there.
Let us pray.
Luke 9:28-43
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” – not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
“Seeking the Intimacy of God”
Village Church
February 14, 2010
Valentine’s Day can be something of a tyranny. First of all, there is the hideousness of stores drenched in red and pink hearts and laces. It is as if they don’t even attempt to make it pretty but rather embrace as much plastic tackiness as possible. Is that really all they could imagine as an expression of love?
Throughout my childhood, my mother always gave me Valentine’s Day cards and we did something special together. So for a long time, I gave everyone I loved cards and presents, especially my beloved friends. It was not until late in my adolescence when a friend told me how comforted she felt getting my cards since she had no lover that I realized that most people consider this a day for lovers. Having been fairly self absorbed, I suddenly noticed that the rest of the country thought so as well. Suddenly a day of many kinds of love turned into a day of loneliness.
Our society celebrates romantic love as the highest expression of love. We might insist otherwise. But romantic love is what we celebrate in cards, movies, and in our list of what we should accomplish in our lives, as if love is somehow something we might work towards like a career. In fact, it is not even a full love of partnership that we celebrate but rather the moment of falling in love. We celebrate infatuation and desire. Television shows run for years on the sexual tension of friends. The moment they succumb and commit to one another, either they have to be interrupted by other problems or the show becomes tepid and boring. We have no idea how to express sustained love.
In English, we have only one word for love. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are four words for love. For one there is Eros. This is where we get the English word erotic. Eros is sexual attraction. We call it falling, because it is a rush, overwhelming and intoxicating, whether or not it ever leads to anything else. It is a falling though, so it either deepens or it disappears when we hit the ground.
Another Greek word for love is storge. Storge is the love of family. It is the love of commitment. It does not necessarily speak to biological connections. It is what we mean when we hear the adages, “blood is thicker than water,” or “home is where they have to take you in.” We may not always get along or appreciate each other, but we are connected and committed, like it or not.
Philia is the love of friendship. This is one of the two most common words used in the New Testament for love. Philia can be just as and even more passionate than eros. It goes beyond referring to someone with whom we have mutual interests. It is the brother for whom we die in battle. It is the sister we turn to remind us who we are when we are lost.
Philia is also the love we have for a fellow human being. It is the love that makes us fight for the rights of another. The love that makes us help someone across the street. Philia is what moves us to want to do something when we see the suffering of the Haitians.
Finally the most common Greek word for love in the New Testament is Agape. Agape is unconditional love. Agape is love regardless of flaws and weaknesses, regardless of betrayal and cruelty, regardless of any action or situation, abiding unconditional love. Since for us erotic love is our most intense and overwhelming expression, mystics often use the language of erotic love to express their relationship with God. Yet in substance, agape is the love of God. Not the love we give God, but the love that God gives us. Agape is extremely difficult for us to understand, much less offer to one another. Yet it is not only the love God offers us, but also the love that Jesus calls us to live.
In I Corinthians 13, Paul uses the word agape. Because we have so little understanding or experience of it, he goes into great detail explaining what he means. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” When we hear this passage, most often it is at a wedding. We have managed to take even this and reduce it to romantic love. Yet the love that Paul writes about is love beyond eros, or storge, or philia. Agape is unconditional, and therefore, eternal.
Truly Agape for us finite conditional human beings, is terrifying. Agape makes one entirely vulnerable, love given and enduring, regardless of the response. The transfiguration is a drunken spree of agape love. Jesus is God’s beloved. God pours down love so brightly that it shines a blinding brilliant light. that clings to Jesus. Moses and Elijah are drawn towards it. The disciples fall quivering to their knees in terror of it. Peter wants to subdue it, to dim its brilliance by moving it inside, to manage it by containing it in something he can grasp.
Have you ever seen this kind of light in another human being? This is the light of a woman pregnant, knowing that her heart will be broken, and yet still she will love her child. This is the light of the saint who spends her life serving the most desperate. This is the light of life, and the light that sometimes destroys in order to make new life. A mystic named Julian of Norwich lived through the Black Plague. Thousands upon thousands dying of mysterious illness. Yet she insisted not only that God was Love, but also that all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall
be well.
How is that even possible? I have to admit to you, I have no idea. However, this I do know. In pouring upon us agape love, God has become vulnerable to us. And now, in order to understand, to seek a ground upon which to stand, we must make ourselves vulnerable to God. We must seek God the Mystery, God the friend, God the Mother, and God
the lover.
Let us pray.- Matthew 2:1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel."'
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have bound him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at is rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
"Foreigners, Adulterers, and Suspect Women"
Today we celebrate Epiphany, the shining of light, both literally in the star that shines over Jesus' house and metaphorically in the new light of salvation that is given to all people. Epiphany is also called Three Kings' Day commemorating the visit of the three wise men to Jesus. Three Kings' Day used to be celebrated in many different cultures and countries across the world. It remains an important holiday today in Latino communities and in Indigenous Christian communities. On the eve of the 12th day after Christmas, children leave out their shoes stuffed with hay for the camels. The Three Kings— Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar— leave gifts as they travel on in their search for the Christ child.
Village Church
January 3, 2010
The next day there is a great festival. Children dress up as the kings and parade through town behind a huge star. Unlike our religious tradition, the Gospel of Matthew is not nearly as specific about the identity and timeline of the wise men. There is no mention of how many came or when they came or what their names were. Matthew does not put in these details because he is not concerned about details. Matthew is concerned about meaning. The point is not whether there were three or six, whether they were from Persia or Afghanistan, whether they were priests or kings, whether they arrived twelve days or three years after the birth.
The point is that Jesus' kingship is recognized by wise important men from foreign countries. Jesus is born King of the Jews, yet it is foreigners who pay him homage.
Matthew begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus from Adam to Joseph. In this long list, Matthew only mentions four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Who these women are conveys the meaning that Matthew is trying to get at. Tamar is promised to Judah's son. But then Judah has him marry someone else. So Tamar dresses in disguise as a prostitute. She spends the night with Judah and he gives her his ring as a token. When she turns up pregnant, Judah is about to put her to death but she produces his ring. Judah recognizes it, and admits that he had not done his duty and gave her a husband.
So Tamar's life spared, and she is praised.
Rahab is both a foreigner and a prostitute. Moses' successor and general Joshua is on his way to conquer the Promised Land. He sends two spies into Jericho. They spend the night with Rahab. Obviously they are not very stealthy about this, because the next morning the King of Jericho sends word to Rahab to hand them over. If the President sent Homeland Security to your door telling you to hand over some strangers who you'd only met the night before, would you turn them in? Rahab hides the men on her roof. She tells the soldiers that they left already and sends them off in the wrong direction. Then she negotiates with the spies to spare her and her entire family when the Hebrew people invade. They tell her to hang a red cord in the window as a sign, and the spies escape out her
window on a rope.
Ruth is also a foreigner. She is not a prostitute, and yet her story is not innocent either. After her first husband dies, she travels with her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel leaving her brothers and sisters and cousins and parents behind. Even though she has no protection and as a foreigner would be considered unclean she insists on going with Naomi. Ruth loves her. Once they arrive, Naomi teaches Ruth how to seduce Boaz into marrying her. She picks leftovers in his fields, making sure that he notices her. After a few days of this, she spends the night at his feet. Before you know it, they're married and have a child.
Bathsheba is married to Uriah when she gets pregnant by King David. David tries to lie his way out of the situation by bringing Uriah home from the war so he can spend the night with his wife. Uriah, however, is trying to keep himself focused on the battle so he doesn't sleep with her. Finally, David has Ufiah killed and marries Bathsheba. Her son becomes the next King of Israel. In his genealogy, Matthew could have referred to her by name as he does the others, but rather he refers to her as "the wife of Uriah." Matthew draws attention to their adultery.
Foreigners, adulterers, and suspect women. This is the ancestry of Jesus-King, High Priest, Messiah, Son of God. When he is born, only foreigners recognize whom he is and honor him. His own people do not even notice. The upright, the virtuous, and the powerful plot to kill him. His followers are thieves, adulterers, prostitutes, rebels, the sick, the poor, the simple, and the ordinary. Even hundreds of years after his death Romans deride his followers as slaves and women.
Matthew gives us unexpected heroes. His Gospel demonstrates that although Jesus is born as King of the Jews, his message about the good news of God's love is a message of love for all people. It is a message that calls us to be inclusive, to set aside such distinctions as American or foreign, to set aside such distinctions as virtuous or sinful.
The star of divine light exists somewhere within all people. We are called to seek that light in everyone we meet, no matter how difficult or unlikely. We are called not to judgment, but to love.
Let us pray.
