Keeping Quiet

A couple times a week I end up coming back to one album on my iPod: BarlowGirl's "How Can We Keep Silent?" I first started listening to it back in June while driving to Annual Conference in Lincoln from Bellevue. It was early, I hadn't had any coffee yet, and my mind was wandering around events of Annual Conference and God's vision for The United Methodist Church. Then this song, "Keep Quiet," caught my attention.

Oh the things I've sacrificed
So that I could bring You to this world.
I want them to see You in me,
But Your name just keeps them far from me.
So I'll keep quiet. Let's hope they see I'm different.

Jesus, Jesus why's Your name offensive?
Why are we so scared to tell this world You've saved us?
When all of the hope of the world's in Your name,
Why are we so scared to say...
Oh Jesus

If I avoid to speak Your name
Tell me would You do the same to me.
If relevance becomes my goal,
Tell me, will I lose You to its hold?
But if I keep quit they'll never see I'm different.

Jesus, Jesus why's Your name offensive?
Why are we so scared to tell this world You've saved us?
When all of the hope of this world's in Your name,
Why are we so scared to say...
Oh Jesus

I'm sorry I've cared about my name more than Yours.
I'm so sorry, how could I hide You anymore?
But if I keep quiet they'll never see I'm different.

Jesus, Jesus why's Your name so offensive?
Why are we so scared to tell this world You've saved us?
When all of the hope of the world's in Your name,
Why are we so scared to say...
Oh, Jesus.

There are so many great lines in this song. It's true and powerful. For many of us whose favorite idea of evangelism and sharing the good news of Christ is summed up in St. Francis of Assisi's words ("Speak the gospel always; if necessary, use words"), this song is a reminder that we might have overlooked the "if necessary" part. I preach and teach about preaching with our lives and letting our lives lead into conversation. So this line cuts me: "So I'll keep quiet. Let's hope they see I'm different." Yet, I wonder if it cuts because it's true, and that we as an American, mainline church have put too much emphasis on the hope that they'll see we're different without emphasizing and equipping people for telling the story of God's love through Jesus in the Spirit well.

Sent Out By God

Sermon for July 5, 2009 - 5th Lord's Day after Pentecost
Mark 6:1-13

I once read about a pastor who introduced herself to visitors in worship saying, “Hi, I’m __ Jill__ . I’m one of the ministers here.” Certainly, she’s the pastor and has a disctinct calling to ministry, but the point she tried to convey in her introduction is clear: we’re all called to be ministers. Each of us gathered here is a minister by virtue of God’s work in us through our baptism. (Baptismal Covenant quote?) You’re each ministers.
So, what’s your area of ministry? Where has God called and equipped you for ministry? How are you being a minister of Christ for others? You might be wondering that yourselves, though I think you are more than realize. Let’s name some ways people in this congregation are ministering to others: making salads or desserts for funeral dinners, or serving and cleaning up for these dinners; giving people rides to church, or appointments; playing music; writing cards; watching thermostats; signing checks; healing others, or bearing with others through suffering; praying and passing on prayers to others; helping people find aid and resources to live more healthily; visiting others; taking people to the grocery store. These are just some of the ways people in this congregation are in ministry. We are each ministers of Christ for the world.
Yet from today’s scripture reading, the idea that we’re all called to be ministers probably strikes a little fear in each of us. After all, Jesus says that a prophet, or perhaps anyone in ministry, is not accepted in his hometown, not given honor or respect.
This is a strange story. Jesus, as we’ve read in recent weeks, has just come home from being out and about teaching and doing miraculous things. He healed the bleeding woman and brought Jairus’ daughter back to life. He calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee. He taught in parables and he healed many others. Word has traveled about Jesus, his teachings, and his amazing miracles. So when he comes back to his hometown of Nazareth, you would expect that people would be thrilled to have their superhero, super-healer, favorite son home to teach and perform miracles. Right?
Not so. Instead, after seeing and hearing him teach at the synagogue, they’re both astounded and skeptical. Instead of embracing him, they reject him: Who does he think he is? He’s just Mary’s son – an insult, because they don’t even recognize his father, as if calling him a mamma’s boy almost – he’s a simple craftsman. He’s done these miraculous things. By whose authority? We’ve known him and his family since he was a child. Who does he think he is?
As a result of the Nazarenes’ unbelief, Jesus does little teaching and few miracles except for healing a few people. They didn’t want what he had to offer, if it was coming from him. They just could not believe that anything from God, anything true could come from such a normal, everyday person – someone they’d known for years. They didn’t believe God could possibly be using someone like them to teach them, to heal them, to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come.
If being in ministry means being rejected or being made fun of as Jesus was, then that doesn’t sound very good at all, does it? And yet, immediately after his embarrassing time in Nazareth, Jesus gathered the twelve disciples and sent them out among the villages for ministry. They’d just seen Jesus rejected and ridiculed by the crowd in his hometown. Jesus: the one who healed the sick, brought the dead to life, and spoke so beautifully about the kingdom of God as a present reality. Now he was sending them out two by two in ministry to cast out demons, heal the sick, and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come. Can you imagine what they must have been thinking and feeling?
Perhaps, they were feeling similar to how you might have felt when I said earlier that you are all ministers. “Minister _(name)_,” “Minister_(name)_,” “Minister _(name)_”: how does that sound? How does that make you feel? Scared? Nervous? Disbelieving? Worried about what others will think? Worried about rejection? Yeah, I’m sure, and we can imagine that the disciples might have felt similar anxieties. And so what does Jesus do? He gives them more instructions: Don’t take anything with you except a staff – no money, no food, no bag. Just stay with others and leave them when you leave town. If you’re rejected someplace, as I have been, go somewhere else and shake the dust from your sandals as you leave. Comforting, right? (Wrong).
If the disciples did feel nervous, scared, and skeptical about being sent out in ministry, and if we too feel like this when called “ministers,” then we are all really in a similar position to the Nazarenes who rejected Jesus to begin with. They knew who Jesus was. They’d heard about the mighty works he’d done – works only possible by the power of God. They’d heard his teaching and were astounded at his wisdom. But they couldn’t believe that all this goodness, wisdom, and power could possibly be conveyed through an everyday, ordinary man like Jesus. They couldn’t believe that God could use him.
Likewise, hearing that “we’re all called to be ministers” causes us to cringe a little, because we’re afraid. But that fear is really just disbelief. We’re scared because we can’t possibly believe that God would call each and every one of us. We think, Oh, God can’t want me as a minister. I’ve got nothing to offer. I’m just an ordinary person. I’m not smart enough. I’m not old enough – young enough. I’m not good enough.
But that’s the amazing thing about being in Christ: we don’t have to be good enough, smart enough, whatever enough. We are in ministry, and created to be ministers, by God. Our baptism shows this. Many of us were baptized as babies. On that day, we were called into ministry – it just takes a lifetime to live into God’s vision for us. We didn’t know anything, we didn’t choose anything. Baptism is about what we already are, God’s children called to ministry, and what God will make us – ever more like the Son. We don’t have to be anything special to be called, to be in ministry. We are because God loves us and has created us for this reason. We don’t need special knowledge, though sometimes training and education are helpful.
God calls us into ministry and it doesn't have anything to do with us or how good, smart, or whatever we are. We’re called into ministry by God as a gift, so that we can share the good news with others. This is what our Christian faith is: it’s ministry, it’s living as followers of Jesus whose lives, words, and deeds speak to the world of God’s great love for all.
Certainly ministry isn’t easy – the Christian life isn’t easy. Jesus was rejected by the Nazarenes long before he took on the rejection of the cross. And Jesus gave his disciples instructions for what to do when they too were rejected. Yet, Jesus doesn’t tell them they need lots of stuff, lots of education, lots of supplies to be faithful disciples. No, Jesus tells them not to take anything because they have everything they need in their faith. They have everything they need because God has already called them, indeed, created them to be ministers. God created them for ministry, and God created us for ministry too.
And because Jesus was rejected in ministry, we can go out faithfully in service to others in Christ’s name without fear of rejection. God calls us all into ministry, and God gives us all we need to be faithful, whether rejected or praised.

A Generous Undertaking

Sermon for June 28 - 4th Lord's Day after Pentecost
2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Intro: In the Omaha metro area, there is a ministry called the Big Garden. The Omaha metro area, as in many other urban areas, is heavily populated by low-income minority persons. These same persons, statistically, are less healthy, in large part because they don’t have the resources to make good, healthy food choices – they don’t have the money to buy them, they don’t know another way, and they don’t have access to some of the tools and resources others have.  

Funded by national grants, as well as local churches, and our Conference’s Risk-Taking Mission & Justice team, which we support through our Mission Shares, the Big Garden is a network of community gardens in the Omaha metro area. In 2006, they started with 5 gardens. Now they’re up to 22 gardens. They help people plant gardens, teach them about healthy food choices, provide education for food preparation, storage, and preservation, and offer space for community interaction across racial, age, and economic lines. The Big Garden is bringing people together in radical and generous ways. People are generously sharing their skills, knowledge, and time to help others live healthier, more vibrant lives. These people, together, are embracing the reality that the Christian life is, as Paul called it in today’s passage from 2 Corinthians, “a generous undertaking.”

The Project: The 8th and 9th chapters of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church can be read as a fund-raising letter of sorts. Paul has been busy taking up a collection among the Gentile churches to support the impoverished Christian community in Jerusalem.
This is a wonderful ministry, taking care of other Christians who are in need, and the Corinthian church was filled with a desire to participate the year before, but now, their desire seems to have died down. That’s why Paul writes this letter and sends it with Titus and others – to encourage them to “finish doing it, so that [their] eagerness may be matched by completing it” (v11).  

This makes me wonder, “Why, when they were once so excited about the ministry, did the Corinthian church need encouragement to follow through? What impeded their generosity?” Paul doesn’t write about what justifications they gave for not giving to the Christians in need in Jerusalem, but we can get a sense of the real reason from his instructions to the Corinthian Christians.  

Their Scarcity: In a word, their problem was scarcity. They were overcome by a sense of scarcity that overwhelmed their generosity. We get a sense of this from Paul telling them that “if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has – not according to what one does not have” (v12). Apparently, their generosity was overwhelmed with the feeling that there wasn’t enough resources to go around. They must have thought, Well, maybe we shouldn’t give at all, because we certainly can’t give as much as is needed to fix the problem. And, we can’t give as much as some others.  

They were, apparently, slow in giving all that they had promised or intended because they began to think perhaps they weren’t gifted with enough to share. They thought their own resources were too scarce to share with others. But that’s the trouble: they thought their resources were too scarce to share. Paul is clear that the Christian life is about sharing, about giving out of the abundance we have, and receiving from others their abundance where we lack. Paul doesn’t encourage them to give so that they become impoverished, but instead insists that there should be a “fair balance” between all, because in Christ, there is enough to go around (v14).

Our Scarcity: After reading about the Corinthian church’s struggle with scarcity and living into the generous character of God, it makes me wonder about our own lives in this generous undertaking following Christ. Now, of course, Paul was writing specifically about a collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem, while our minds immediately turn toward our own offering plates. They’re perhaps a little different, yet they are also very similar, for in our giving, we are giving through the church for the ministry of Christ here and worldwide.
In our church, we’re doing much better financially than we were a year ago. There is more ministry being done in this church and for that we can all praise God. God is working in our congregation and empowering us in the generous undertaking of the Christian life. But we’re not there yet. There are more people in our community who are broken and need to hear and feel the good news of Jesus Christ. There’s more ministry to be done and God’s giving us the passion to do it, but the question always comes up – “Do we have enough money to pay for it?” This is a reality in our church and in countless others.

But when we ask this, I hear Paul’s words addressed to us. Like the Corinthians, we have the desire for great ministry. We have the vision – both locally and globally. But we’ve been overwhelmed by a sense of scarcity that stifles our generosity. We all deal with it at times. We see the bills coming in, the requirements, the things that must be paid, and we make choices, rational choices, because we can’t see how there can possibly be enough to go around. Perhaps like the Corinthians we begin to think, Well, we’ve got just enough to make ends meet, so we’ll leave the above-and-beyond giving to those others who have more money, more resources, better jobs, whatever. And it’s easy to fall into this. I know it. I watch my own household budget too. We all struggle with this feeling that there isn’t enough to go around, but Paul says, quoting Ex16.18, “The ones who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

GN: Paul didn’t have any problem writing to the Corinthians about the generous undertaking of the Christian life, because he didn’t believe in scarcity. He knew that God frees us from scarcity so that we can give generously. Thus, he reminds them, and us, that God frees us from scarcity through Christ, who, “though he was rich, yet for [our] sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty [we] might become rich” (v.9). Jesus, the Lord of Creation, came to free us from all that binds us. Normally, we say ‘free us from bondage to sin and death,’ but Jesus also frees us from scarcity and opens up the abundance of life with God, opens us up to give freely and generously because we don’t believe that our resources are scarce.  

With God, there is always enough to go around. We saw it in the Exodus story Paul’s quote is from: God provided an abundance of quail and manna for the people to eat in the desert. We see it today. In Christ, there is enough to go around, because God is providing for God’s creation to flourish. Through Christ, God frees us from scarcity so that we can give generously.
And when we live into this freedom, amazing things happen in the name of Christ Jesus. God does amazing work through the ordinary gifts of ordinary people for the transformation of the world. God does it through ministries like the Big Garden, and through ministries in our own church like the Communion Ministry and Vacation Bible School.  

Mission: So when we give, we give because God is changing lives through the local and global ministries of the church. God frees us from scarcity to give generously in creative ways that go far beyond offering plates.  

Consider this as an example from a church in Chicago. What if we, as a church, or a group of neighbors, developed a list of goods and skills out of our abundance to share with others? Consider the goods we have that we use infrequently: tools, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, edgers, pie plates, cake pans, tree clippers, snow blowers, fruits and veggies from the garden, or extra garden space others could use, or an empty section of yard for others to plant. We have things we don’t use everyday, and we could lend them to our neighbors on the off days. They become like community-held resources, in this, I hear Paul: “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” Or, consider your skills that others might not have but would find useful: fixing things, cooking, putting up fruits and vegetables. These are examples of things we may have in abundance that we could give to others who lack them.

It’s perhaps that there isn’t a forum, a space, a place for such sharing. That’s true. Well, what if we made one? What if we used our kitchen to teach the community how to can and put up vegetables that are healthy, low in sodium and preservative free? What if we used our loads of fabric to not only make blankets and clothes for others, but also to teach others how to make their own blankets, clothes, and house wares?

These are just a few creative ways to live into the generous undertaking of the Christian life. God frees us from scarcity so we can give generously. May we go in God’s power to live into this generous undertaking together. Amen.

The Kingdom's Like...

Sermon for 6.14.09 - 2nd Lord's Day after Pentecost
Mk 4.26-34

Intro: We are citizens of God’s kingdom, members of God’s family.
- We’ve been talking about this idea lately.
- We are first and foremost citizens of God’s kingdom.
o Our church’s mission statement affirms it: “With God’s help we will love into the kingdom all God’s children.”
o Celebrating baptism affirms it: whatever kingdom we were born into, God’s kingdom supercedes it.
- But what does it mean to be people of God’s kingdom? What does God’s kingdom look like? (really)
- Well...Jesus knew his disciples would have questions about this, just like we do today. Generally, all of Jesus’ parables are meant to show what God’s kingdom is like, what it looks like to be kingdom people.
o So what do you think? According to Jesus’ parables today, what’s God’s kingdom like?

A Tree & Hospitality:
- In order to understand what Jesus is telling his disciples of every age about the kingdom of God in today’s parables, it helps to know some of the tradition he’s building on.
- People in Jesus’ day knew scripture, especially the males. Depending on skill and circumstance, males had potentially years of school primarily studying – even memorizing a good deal of – the Hebrew Scriptures. So, when Jesus spoke these parables, especially about the mustard seed, the people would have heard echoes of another scripture – Ezekiel 17.23:
o “On the mountain height of Israel
/ I will plant it, / in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
/ and become a noble cedar. /
Under it every kind of bird will live; /
in the shade of its branches will nest
/ winged creatures of every kind.”
o So, the kingdom of God is like a big tree – a big tree under which creatures will find shade and rest, in which countless birds will nest.
o A place where tons of different creatures call home: this sounds like an issue of hospitality to me.
 (Full disclosure, our Annual Conference theme this year was on Radical Hospitality, one of the six signs of discipleship embraced by our Conference plan).
 Radical hospitality; Heartwarming worship; Risk-taking mission and justice work; Vital faith formation and prayer; Gracious generosity; and Connectional joy and commitment.
- The kingdom of God is a radically hospitable, inclusive place. Being kingdom people means being a people of radical hospitality – hospitality that takes us out of our comfort zones, out of our norms, and into new relationships. (Echoes other parts of our congregation’s mission statement: Going with God into new relationships, we can be a light to those who are desperately searching for love and acceptance).

Hospitality, Inclusion, & Exclusion:
- On Sunday at our mission/vision retreat, I asked if we are excluding anyone from the family of faith and the kingdom of God.
o We had some fruitful, honest conversation about exclusion from the kingdom of God and if we are entering God’s kingdom ourselves.
o Exclusion is, in many ways, the opposite of hospitality. Exclusion, does not look like a tree sheltering all the creatures.

Inclusion/Hospitality:
- Our congregation is a welcoming, inclusive, hospitable congregation. We can celebrate this as one of our God-given, and discipline-grown gifts.
o E.g. my friends and family’s comments;
 Others: elevator access almost led to new building.
 it’s almost a matter of pride for our congregation.
 greeters, bread ministry, Doyle praying with names, communion w/ names, Hispanic ministry, children’s night for members and non-members, AA group, and Recovery group
o We are opening ourselves and others to God.
Exclusion:
- We have much celebrate, but let’s be honest with ourselves. Look around.
o Who, what groups of people, are not present in our fellowship? Why?
 E.g., Young adults, and more children; Hispanics; African immigrants.
- It’s not that we exclude by intention.
o This isn’t at all because we’ve literally said to others, “You’re not welcome here.”
 Quite the opposite, our very mission statement and our conversations and invitations say, “Come and join us.”
o But have we made a place for these others in our fellowship? Do we offer things they need? Do we even know them? Or see them at all? Do we have any contact with them? And if not, why not? And should we?

Transition
- Jesus, by his actions, shows us that we should. He sought out, he intentionally spent time with, the outsiders and the strangers to the established community of faith.
- Remember Jesus’ parable drawing on Ezekiel’s prophesy from God: the kingdom of God is like a tree that gives shelter to all the creatures.
o If we are called to be kingdom people, if we claim to be about welcoming into the kingdom all God’s children, that means our congregation is where all these others finds home, finds community with God and others, finds peace.
- This is what Jesus is building on when he speaks these parables about what God’s kingdom is like. But let’s look at them.

Kingdom – Mustard Seeds & Bushes
- It’s ironic – it doesn’t quite fit with our expectations.
o We like the Ezekiel passage – being referred to as mighty cedars, like redwoods or sequoias only pleasingly fragrant too.
- But the mustard seed and shrub….?
o The seeds aren’t literally the smallest, but they are proverbially small – they’re known for their tiny-ness.
o And it’s a bush, not a tree. Not majestic at all, though you can make a nice condiment from the seeds.
- But the size doesn’t matter; the impression doesn’t matter. It’s just right for God’s purpose – bringing shelter to the creatures.
- We’re like mustard seeds and bush.
o We’re not the biggest or the most known; but we’re doing some great things in Jesus’ name.
o We’re just right for God’s purpose of sheltering all creatures, all God’s children in Grand Island. All.

Kingdom – Seeds
What’s going on in the parable of the seeds?
- Who’s planting or spreading? God? Us? God through us?
o It must not be God b/c the planter doesn’t know how it grows and bears fruit. So it’s us.
- How do we spread seed? What’s seed?
o Spreading the gospel – the good news of being God’s children and included in the family and kingdom of God.
o It’s also spreading the inclusion of God, the hospitality of God.
o The gospel message, the good news, is that the Son lived and died for the salvation of all.
 This is radical, life-costing.
 This is hospitality, for salvation is being brought into the home, into the family, into the kingdom of God.
 It is being welcomed as one lost who is now found.
- Of most importance: We don’t make the plant grow or bear fruit. The person goes to sleep and rises while the seed sprouts and grows, and he doesn’t know how it happens.
o God does. God grows the seed so that it can bear fruit. That is, God grows disciples so that they can be kingdom people.
- This is freeing.
o It frees us from a results-driven mentality.
o Sure we must work, must plant, but if some things don’t appear to be growing, we don't have to fret. We don't have to feel defeated.
o And what else? We don't have to feel like it must happen over night.
o The planter went to be and got up and did it again. And the germination time is undefined.
 There’s no package that says how long like my herbs in the pots.
 So we don’t have to worry. We spread the gospel and God makes it grow.

Orchards & Grace
- Whether it’s apples or grapes, they have to grow for 2-3 years before they’re allowed to bear fruit for harvest.
- It’s a long-term, long-vision investment and commitment.
- And, you don’t know if they’re going to make it and don’t have final control.
o You plant them. You water, prune, and protect them.
o But at the end of the day, you just go to bed and get up and find they’ve grown.

Prevenient Grace
o Grace = an unmerited (deserved) free gift.
o Prevenient = coming before
o God’s grace is actively working in each of us even before we’re aware of it.
- What does this have to do with hospitality or planting the seeds of the gospel?
o The sharing is our task. The spreading the seed, or planting, is our ministry as baptized Christians.
o But we’re not the ones who get the growth going. We’re not even the ones who prepare the soil. God does all the big stuff. We just toss the seeds out there. God is going before us as we do. And then, we can go to bed, and rise, and find that God has grown disciples into kingdom people.

Ending:
- So we don’t have to worry about the ministry of evangelism, the ministry of spreading the seeds of the gospel. We just do it, knowing that God does the work.
- This is especially true in terms of radical hospitality.
o We need to do some thinking about, some praying on, and some living out radical hospitality.
o We need to find those people who are absent from us, wherever they are: at work, at restaurants, at softball games and bowling leagues.
o And we need to find a way to invite them into our lives, for our lives are part of the kingdom of God.
- Yet, these are the easy things. God does the hard part.
o We just toss the seed of our inclusive love and hospitality out there.
o We just spread it out on the earth that God has already prepared.
o And then we rest, knowing that God is doing it all: going before us, and walking with us, and tending after us.
- God grows us and others into kingdom people, to be the community, the tree under which all find shelter, home, and God.

Living into the Family of God

Thoughts Before Worship:
Many Christians like to talk about having a “personal relationship with Jesus.” What does that look like? Do you have one? Remembering that Jesus, the Son, is God, to be in relationship with him is to be in relationship with God. Entering relationship with God is not something to be taken lightly; it takes our whole lives, just as any great and lasting relationship does. As we prepare for worship this Trinity Sunday, I invite us all to consider the state of our relationship: have we entered into it, are we all-in, what does that mean?

Sermon for 6.7.09 - Trinity Sunday

Romans 8:12-17

As our activity with the children indicated, we humans are all connected: what one person does impacts all others. This is the idea of the word “ubuntu,” which is from the Bantu languages of southern Africa. “Ubuntu” doesn’t have a short, English translation; rather, it is an idea, a way of life, a way of looking at the world. See and hear what Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has to say about “ubuntu.” VIDEO HERE. STOP AT ABOUT 1:38. (vodpod)

Using this in Trinity Sunday's sermon. Desmond Tutu on "Ubuntu" (Semester at Sea, Spring 2007).

(For more about "Desmond Tutu on Ubuntu (Semester at S...", posted with vodpod) Archbishop Tutu described “ubuntu” saying, “A person is a person through other persons. We all belong in the bundle of life.... I need you to be you so I can be me.” By extension, people with “ubuntu” care for others, look out for others, without concern for themselves, because they know that they are all connected. They’re thinking is, If I serve others, if I look out for the welfare of others, we will all be better off, the fabric of creation will be more as God intends it to be.
Essentially, “ubuntu” means we’re all interconnected. This shouldn’t surprise us. In our global world, we need only look as far as the news to see how one person’s actions in one area of the world sends ripple effects of impact around the world. It happens with our economy. Recently we’ve heard of North Korea’s nuclear testing, and countries around the world are reacting, with fear, anger, and confusion. We’re all connected. Our actions don’t go unnoticed and they don’t affect just us. We are people, we are human, by being in relationship with others – “a person is a person through other persons.” Ubuntu.
This interconnectedness, this web of relationship isn’t just about us. It’s also about God. You see, in Christianity, we have what’s called the doctrine of the Trinity, which we celebrate every day, but especially this day, Trinity Sunday. Now, there’s no quick or perfect explanation of the Trinity, so I’m not going to try today. What we know from Scripture and our rich tradition of thousands of faithful people worshipping God, is that God is one, and God is also three. God is Father, God is Son, and God is Spirit. We see this throughout Scripture, and we see it throughout our lives, wherever we see God at work in our midst.
We can see the work of the Triune – three-in-one – God especially in today’s reading from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman church. Paul wrote to the Roman church because he had heard about their faithfulness and the work God was doing in their midst, and he wanted to visit them. His hope was that they could “be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Rom1.12). This letter was a theological introduction for their time together, so that they could grow in faithfulness through their relationship. Ubuntu.
Judging from today’s reading and much of the content leading up to it, we can infer that Paul knew that the Roman church was struggling with how to live as a Christian community comprised of Jew- and Gentile-Christians. There must have been debates about living according to the Law of the Old Testament or not. Yet, we all know, and they did too, that according the Law, no one was ever good enough, because the Law required perfection, and none of us are perfect. We have sinful desires – they did then, we do now – and Paul is adamant that living according to those sinful desires leads only to death.
But this isn’t how God intends Creation to be. God doesn’t want a whole lot of dead people. God is the God of the living who wants people to be alive, wants people to live – and to truly live is to live into the family of God. Jesus, God the Son, took on flesh, took on all of what it means to be a creature, so that when God raised him, God would also raise all of Creation to new life, a life in relationship with God. And to make sure that Creation was aware of God’s mighty act of salvation in Jesus Christ, God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within all people. By the power of the Holy Spirit, our sinfulness is put to death, as we are ushered into the life of the relationship of the Triune God. We know this is true for we celebrated it last week Sunday, and just this Friday, with the baptisms of Kasey Ramos and Kimberly DeLeon: by water and the Spirit, we are drawn into the family of God. Ubuntu.
Paul says it so well: “[You] have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves [to sin and death]. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when [God] adopted you as [God’s] own children” (v.15). Jesus, the Son, came into the world talking about God as Father, because that’s the relationship in the Trinity. It’s not that God’s really male. God is God. But the relationship is there. The family is there. And when Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, he began, “Our Father,” but not so much “Father” as “Daddy,” “Abba,” as Jesus prays elsewhere (Mk14.36). It’s a close, intimate name for a close and intimate relationship, a relationship that Jesus draws us into through the Spirit. “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (v.14). All are adopted into the family of the Triune God. A person is a person through other persons, and we are most fully persons, most fully whom God created us to be, through the person of Jesus Christ the Son. Ubuntu.
And then, whenever we pray, “Our Father,” whenever we cry with Jesus, “Abba! Father!” the very Spirit of God is giving testimony, is proclaiming that, yes, we too, are God’s children. Do you know this relationship? Do you know that when Doyle leads us to pray as Jesus taught us that God is at work in our breath and on our lips? Do you know how precious you are to God? So precious that God came to earth in the Son as Jesus, so precious that he took on sin and death, that the whole world might be saved, might be drawn into the family of the Triune God. You are so precious to God. So precious that the Son lived and died. So precious that the very Spirit of the living God is dwelling inside each and every one of us, and within all of Creation, guiding the world to know the joy and peace and glory of the family of God.
Praise be to God! The Spirit draws us all into the family of God. And since that’s the case, we know that God draws us all into one, single, family, for others are also in God’s family. And we can see the wonderful fruits of living into the family of God all around us. We see it most clearly at the end of the baptismal covenant service, in which the pastor greets the congregation as I did last week, “Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is your newest brother in Christ.” And I charged you to live into this covenant relationship by taking care of Kasey and his family. I charge you also to do so for Kim and her family – Memo, Irma, Kevin, Ryan, and Leslie, Raphael and Chula. And you have, and you will. Many of you speak so fondly about this church because of the relationships you’ve built. But let’s name this. God has built these relationships so that you can be more fully whom God has created you to be. God draws you into this family. Through your relationships with those sitting next to you and across the isles, you are more fully whom God has created you to be. A person is a person through other persons. Ubuntu.
This is the glory of God. We are living together in peace, diverse and different as we are, and we are living into the family of God as brothers and sisters in Christ through the Spirit. Yet, many of you may have noticed Paul’s last statement in today’s passage, the one where all this family stuff takes a rough turn: “But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering” (v.17). I could have cut this verse out, but it’s there because it’s true. Yes, in Christ through the Spirit, God has adopted us all and claimed us as God’s own, and God is working in and through us to transform us and our world. But that doesn’t mean being children of God, being drawn into the family of God, is all sunshine and daisies.
Being part of any family doesn’t always mean things are going to be perfect. This is no less true for us as children of God. Indeed, sharing in Christ’s glory also means sharing in his suffering. We can feel this suffering all too close to home. It’s said that you can’t choose your family. It’s as true for God’s family, for God does the choosing, and sometimes we don’t all get along. This church has gone through its own share of struggles at living into God’s family, and treating one another as equal brothers and sisters. There’s been pain, but there has also been forgiveness, reconciliation, and newfound hope for our community. This is what being a family means. It means we stick by one another, we work for one another, we look out for one another. In the best sense of the word, this is ubuntu: we are all part of the big web of creation, God’s creation, that God is actively redeeming. God, in the Son, through the Spirit, is drawing us all into the family of God, so that we can enjoy the glory and blessedness of the Trinity. God is drawing us into the family of God so that the entire world might be transformed and redeemed, that all of Creation might live into the family of God. Ubuntu. Amen.

Questions and Vision

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7.7, NRSV).

Jesus said these words near the end of what we call his Sermon on the Mount, in which he instructed many on the way of discipleship (Mt 5-7).  The “way of discipleship”: I say it this way because our lives as Christians are an adventure, a journey of following Christ, being made ever more like Christ by the Spirit.  We’re not made complete Christians by our baptisms or our confessions.  God makes us more and more into who God would have us to be through our faithful living.  This is true also for the church.  Simply erecting a building and putting up a sign does not make a place or a people the church.  God makes us the church through our living in union with Christ.  And this, like most of life, involves questions and vision.

Pastor Rob Bell writes in his book Velvet Elvis that “central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God.  Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God” (31).  Jesus’ instruction to ask, seek, and knock must have been in the back of Bell’s mind. 

Life, work, faith, discipleship, love, being the church: we don't have it all figured out.  Sometimes, we don't know what to do, or think, or say.  Sometimes, we don't know how to live, how to be, in the real world – or even which world is the real one.  The fruit of such uncertainty is questions.  We Christians are called to be questioning, because through our questions, and the relationships that give home to them, God continues to mold us into whom God created us to be. 

It’s not necessarily the answers that are of primary importance; rather, it’s the relationship that hears, shares, and lives the questions and answers with humility and grace.  We are such a community.  But in order to grow in God’s grace and love, we must continue asking the questions, continue seeking God with one another, continue to name and refine the vision God has for us as the Body of Christ in this specific location. 

That’s why the Administrative Council of our church (which is open to all members) is hosting a mini-retreat on Sunday, June 7^th from 3:30 to 8 PM, at the church.  You’re all invited, whether you’re on a committee or not.  We all play a role in the mission and vision of our church.  We’ll worship together, we’ll spend some time sharing with one another, we’ll share supper together (please bring a few dollars each for pizza; we’ll have everything else), and we’ll share a Spirit-led time of questioning and visioning.  Everyone, as members of Christ’s body and this local congregation, has a stake and a say in the direction of our lives together as a church. Come with your love of Jesus and his church, as we seek God’s vision for our congregation.  Please join us for what will be a stimulating, challenging, and uplifting time to celebrate the great things God has done in our midst, and the greater things God has in store for us.  

The Shack

            I just finished reading William Paul Young’s The Shack (Windblown Media, 2007).  Aside from scripture, which is always opening up new doors to understanding and faith in my life, it has been a good long while since I have read a book so profound, beautiful, and true. 

            I came to God in part through my love of the written word – her beauty, her transcendence.  Scripture fascinated me and as I read more and more of it, I was led to talk to God more and more, which in turn prepared me for a time when I could hear and answer God’s call in my life.  But it was not just scripture.  I loved fiction, writing about fiction, and reading about it (perhaps to a lesser degree than the former two).  Before that, I loved stories and the way they carried truth and beauty without explanation or need for any.  All this led me in college away from my initial pre-physical therapy, sciencey major to English and Philosophy, through which, God led me to seminary. 

            But somewhere during the course of seminary, my love for fiction became almost nostalgic.  I would deny it, but my wife was probably partially correct in her judgment: “You don’t like fiction any more,” she’d say when we were in bookstores.  I’d try to argue, but somewhere, I worried that she might be right.  The fiction I read during those three years was good, some very good, but much of it seemed to lack the seriousness, beauty, and truth I once enjoyed.  Instead, I found that beauty and truth more abundant in theology books big and small (sometimes the most beautiful in the smallest and the most ugly in the biggest).  I still do.   And that is good, for when you’re writing about the God who is Good and Beautiful, if you are graced with the ability for that moment to write both truthfully and beautifully, then you have come near the perfection and beauty of the Infinite and Glorious One. 

            So it is from this point that I am brought back into my love affair with fiction and story in my reading of The Shack.  It’s probably not a profound book, except that it is so theologically vast, beautiful, true, and orthodox without overburdening the simple beauty of a story about the Triune God, I AM.   It is as though Mr. Young sat amidst my seminary covenant group, our classes, and our books and then, instead of writing our serious papers on single topics, decided to play a game to see how much of the character of God, God’s will, and what it means to be a Creature he could fit into a single, fictional story. 

            And what a beautiful result.  We could say that The Shack is about a man named Mack struggling to hold his tragedy-filled world in place, searching for meaning, and finding little to pull him from the depths of despair.  But then we’d have missed the point.  The Shack  is about God, and then, it’s about God’s good-but-fallen Creation.  Throughout the narrative of a few short days, Mack is led into the mysterious and awesome character of God. 

            In what took stacks of books, lectures, essays, and arguments (almost all lovingly so) for me to put together in my mind and heart, Mr. Young was led to do through a fairly short story.  It’s no wonder that narrative is a way I have come to think about the Christian life, as well as the practice of theology, for Young displays well the genre’s strength and ability to convey and embody beauty and truth.  The Shack, packed with all the theological highpoints I studied years – the nature of God as Trinity, dancing joyfully throughout Creation, Three-in One; God’s character of perfect freedom; living out of control, because God is in control; the goodness of God; theodicy, or the nature of God considering that bad things happen to good people; forgiveness; the depth and breadth of God’s love; ecclesiology, the nature of the church; and the way of discipleship to name a few – demonstrates fiction’s strength and ability to carry mighty weight without breaking.  Indeed, with so many theological arguments held within, it’s as though opening the book might itself burst forth a theological library onto its reader.  Instead, the story carries its content with a simple and true beauty that is nothing less than astounding, nothing less than inspired by the One the story is truly about. 

            But please, don’t take my word for it; read it yourselves.  And then talk to me or others about it.  Test it against your experiences and understandings of God, yourself, this world, and the kingdom Jesus brought in part, brings in us through the Spirit, and will bring in full when he comes again in final glory and we feast at his heavenly, earthly, beautiful banquet.