God's Sense of Humor

God’s Sense of Humor

Isaiah 43:19 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

19 I am about to do a new thing;

   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

   and rivers in the desert.

Luke 19:1-10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Also, you gotta watch this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECtrMo-QcME

This is the last week of this special sermon series that I put together for the summer. Last spring, I put a cardboard suggestion box in the back of the sanctuary and I told you guys, I’m not picking the sermon topics this summer, you are. So here we are at the end, and next week I’m starting something completely different.

When I got these sermon topics from you guys last spring, I got most of them right around the same time, and then I put them in the order I did for a reason. We started in familiar territory, talking about books of the Bible--nice, comfortable topics for church. Then we ventured out a little further away from our comfort zone, but stayed pretty close, and we talked about important Christian vocabulary words--compassion, repentance, and the Holy Spirit. Then we ventured out a little further, into topics that are still very Christian, but that we’re really not used to talking about in church--Satan, hell, and war. Then we got into topics that I know I’ve never heard a sermon about before, and I doubt any of you have, either--aliens and ouija boards. Now that we’ve covered all the “weird” topics, we’re coming full circle, and we’re ending this sermon series with a topic that we tend to talk about a lot in church--God’s sense of humor.

I can’t speak for you guys, but I can tell you that clergy talk about this a lot. We have to. Really the only way we can cope with how crazy minister life is is if we chalk it up to God’s sense of humor. It’s the nature of a life spent following God. If you get to know and love God with your whole heart, you really have to believe that the divine has a sense of humor.

Most of us first find our way to God through familiar territory. We started coming to church because our parents did, or our grandparents did, or a friend invited us, or because we got involved in an activity we really liked. But God delights in shoving us out of our comfort zones and into places we swore we’d never go. Kind of like how I found myself here in the pulpit of this nice small town church preaching about aliens.

And if we’ve trusted God deeply, and followed God faithfully, most of us will end up with a story of our own, and maybe several, where God pushed us to do something that was so uncomfortable and foreign to us, and we could only imagine God laughing at our stubbornness. Yet, all the while, we knew God well enough to know that whatever he has us do, it’s because of love.

I have a bunch of stories that fit that bill, but I have one in particular that I was saving just for this sermon.This story comes from last August, when we had our community vacation Bible school. Central Presbyterian Church hosted it, and their pastor, Carin, tried really hard to get all the churches in Avon involved in one way or another. So she approached me a while ago, and she asked me if I could sign up to do something for VBS, and she showed me what was still open, and I saw “Bible story teacher” was on the list, and I thought, yeah, I can do that. What I imagined was simple, and something I’ve done a million times before--sum up the story in kid-friendly words, ask a few leading questions, answer whatever questions the kids ask, and then go play a game or something.

So I was pretty freaked out when I showed up for the volunteer training day, and we were watching videos just like the one I showed y’all earlier--and we had half a dozen of them--and we were all singing and dancing to them, and we were told, now you get good at these dances, because you’ll be teaching these to the kids.

I mean, I’m cool with singing, but dancing, oh heck no, I did NOT sign up for dancing. Especially this kind of dancing. And forgive me for saying so, but these little dances felt so corny that I just couldn’t imagine doing any of them even once with a straight face, let alone all of them, every day, for a week.

But I knew my daughter Lily was going to be with me all week, so I thought, oh perfect, there’s my excuse. She’s 2, she’s going to be the youngest kid here, she’ll be too little to do all this singing and dancing, so I’ll just hide in the back with her, and if anyone questions it, I’ll just shrug and say, “sorry, fussy toddler!”

But that’s not how it worked out. Our first day of VBS I found a nice seat waaay in the back with Lily, and when the singing and dancing started, she complained, “Mommy I CAN’T SEE!” And she took my hand and dragged me to the very front row so she could get the best seat in the house. And she loved the singing and dancing. And, seriously, if you haven’t seen Lily dance, you need to put her up to it because it’s adorable. And she wanted to do all the dances, and she got mad if I wasn’t dancing too. So here I was, thinking I could just hide in the back and observe, and Lily had me front row center with my dancing on display for everyone.

But it didn’t stop there. Lily loved these songs so much that when VBS was all over, she had me go look where I could find these videos so she could watch them at home. So everyone else who went to VBS this year has been done with these cheesy dances for awhile, but I still do them regularly, by order of my toddler. I will never get away from this stuff.

And, as challenging as all that was for me, I have to admit that I really grew in my ability to minister to little kids. And most of all, I realized I had to take this voyage outside of my comfort zone fo Lily’s sake. Things like this are how she learns about God, and she’s building her own spiritual vocabulary. That’s so precious, it’s really the most important work God could ever have me do.

God does this kind of stuff to us all the time. It’s really his signature move. Just like the prophet Isaiah told us, we can’t get attached to the way we would rather live, because God is always doing a new thing. And while I’m sure God laughs while we squirm, God also loves us through all of it, and God makes us grow in ways we never thought we could. God sees potential in us that we can’t see in ourselves, and we have to trust God, full of irony as the journey may be, because God helps us grow into the strongest version of ourselves, the version that reflects the image of our Creator.

This is the way Jesus saw Zacchaeus. Luke tells us that Jesus was passing through Jericho, and this caught the attention of a man named Zacchaeus. A tax collector--a man who worked for the Roman government, which occupied Palestine, which Zacchaeus’ neighbors fiercely resented. Zacchaeus worked for the enemy. Not only did he work for the enemy, he profited from it. It was his job to go door to door collecting what you owed to Rome, but he didn’t have to tell you what you really owed. He could shake as much money as he could manipulate out of you, and whatever he got beyond your taxes, he could keep for himself. This wasn’t lost on the people of Jericho, but they were also powerless to stop it, and they despised people like Zacchaeus for betraying and bullying them.

Luke tells us that Zacchaeus was “short in stature”, and indeed, the first thing a lot of us learned about Zacchaeus is that he was a short guy. When I was little I even learned a song about it:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

There’s a theory that Luke really had a double meaning in mind when he called Zacchaeus “short in stature”. It’s obviously completely possible that Zacchaeus was vertically challenged, but we think Luke was also implying that Zacchaeus was small in another way--he was reduced in his social standing, cut down a notch, low on the social totem pole.

This theory makes a lot of sense if you look at Zacchaeus’ behavior. Us short people know what you do when you’re in a crowd and you can’t see something--you wiggle your way to the front, or you get a tall friend to give you a boost. That’s a whole lot easier than what Zacchaeus did.

Zacchaeus climbed a tree. You don’t see short adults climbing a lot of trees because we already know we’re at a disadvantage, but Zacchaeus insisted on doing this. He probably had a great view of Jesus, but more importantly, he also had a great place to hide. In the tree, he could see what he wanted without having to face a crowd of people who hated him.

But Jesus calls him on it. And maybe it’s just me, but I see a lot of humor in this story. Jesus is surrounded by a ton of people, and he obviously has stuff to do, so he could just keep walking. But his eye catches Zacchaeus up in the tree, and he makes a scene instead.

He says, “Oh hey, look, a dude hiding in a tree. Hey Zacchaeus, you get to be my dinner date!”

We can imagine how embarrassed Zacchaeus was.

But then look at the results--redemption. Zacchaeus promises to stop extorting people, and to make amends to his community. It’s unlikely he would have done any of that if Jesus hadn’t pushed him. Jesus saw something amazing in Zacchaeus that he couldn’t see in himself. Zacchaeus was just hoping to get a peek at Jesus, and then sneak away unchanged, but Jesus seized upon that glimmer of curiosity in Zacchaeus, and used it to grow him into a completely different person.

This is how Jesus sees all of us. We’d be so much more comfortable taking the Zacchaeus route, hiding, and trying to catch small glimpses of Jesus without having to step out of our comfort zones, without having any of our vulnerabilities exposed, and without having to commit to discipleship. But Jesus calls us out by name, invites himself into our lives, and makes us grow from all the places where we lack stature. And if we haven’t found a seat at Jesus’ table yet, he takes a seat at ours.

And even though I’m sure God laughs throughout the whole thing, God’s also always with us, helping us grow into the divine image.

Amen.

2-8-15: Perfection

Perfection

Mark 1: 29-39 (NIV)

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

This morning Mark introduces us to someone very important: a Jesus the healer.

How can Jesus heal you?

In this morning's Gospel story, Mark tells us about Jesus essentially going out on a healing spree. First he saw Simon's mother-in-law, and cured her fever. Then he rounded up every single sick or demon-possessed person he could find in town, and cured all of them. Then he took a break so he could go pray. Then he and his disciples moved on to the next town so Jesus could do the same thing there--drive out demons.

So when you read a passage like this one in 2015, the first thing you may find yourself asking of the text is, Demon possessed? What in the world does that mean? What on earth was going on in this town that droves of possessed people were out wandering the streets? That sounds like some kind of horror movie.

So here's what we need to know: people back in Jesus' day didn't understand very much about the human body. They didn't know what disease was, or how to cure it. And they really didn't know what would cause someone to get sick. And in this community, people were getting ill so early and so often that the life expectancy was only thirty years.

But since these people didn't know anything about germs, they turned for an explanation to something they thought they did understand: the gods. In this society, people believed there was a god for everything--for the rain, for the sun, for the moon, for the sky, for the ground, for the water, for every animal, every season, every day of the week. Even among the Jews, they still hadn't totally shaken this belief that there was a different god in charge of everything that happens, so if something bad happened to you, it must be because you offended one of the gods. And, as your punishment, one of those gods, one of those malevolent spirits, must be inhabiting your space and wreaking havoc.

So these people that Mark calls "demon possessed" might have had any number of things wrong with them, and might have been suffering from a multitude of what we would now call physical or mental illnesses. But ultimately, that isn't the point. The point is what these people saw in this amazing Jesus, who seemed to make all these bad spirits go away, and made everyone healed and whole.

Woah.

Jesus only needed to heal a handful of people before large crowds started following him around, asking him to do favors for them, to perform more healing miracles for them.

But that wasn't the point to Jesus, and when his healing powers started becoming notorious, he moved on, because he wanted to go reach more people.

He didn't just come to live among people so that he could be a traveling doctor and rid the world of disease and injury. He came to preach, to proclaim God's kingdom and bring people to God.

The thing is that he had to perform those healing miracles, because the people he was preaching too were too sick, too wounded to serve God. When Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law of her fever, the first thing she did was get up and start serving him.

Is there something keeping you from being able to serve God? For you that might be a physical or mental illness. Or it might be an injury. Or it could be that someone you love is sick, or hurt. Those things might not stop us entirely from serving God--after all, we made it to church today--but they're a burden. They're a burden that, once lifted, frees you to do something more, something greater.

Your burden might be something different. Your burden might be hurt feelings--a relationship that didn't work out, or something you never forgave. Your burden might be resentment. Your burden might be jealousy, a fear you could lose something really important to you. Your burden could be envy, a sense that other people around you have something special that you lack.

Your burden might be anger or fear that's eating you up. Your burden could be doubts, or worries, or guilt. Your burden could be a bad memory you never dealt with. Your burden could be grief that you're having trouble wading through on your own.

Or your burden could be something more tangible, something immediate. Your burden could be getting a roof over your head, a job to pay your bills, and food on your table.

Jesus came to live among us to help us give up our burdens. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28-30‬ NIV)

The really Good News for us, though, is that Jesus didn't just come here to alleviate our burdens. He came to make us perfect. At least according to John Wesley.

Wesley, who founded what became our tradition, used that word, "perfect", a little differently than we do. To him, being perfect didn't mean you were flawless, or that you never made mistakes. Rather, he meant that there is a perfection that God will create within you when you decide to love and serve him. And being a servant of God will so change you on the inside that you can't help but look different on the outside. And you'll have flaws like anyone else, but you'll be wiser, more grounded, more mature, and more at peace.

There's nothing too great to ask of God. There's also nothing too small or insignificant. If it matters to you, it matters to God. If there's something weighing you down, and keeping you from giving your all to God, then share that with him, and let him take your burden from you. If there's an obstacle in your way, something in your life that you can't get around, bring that obstacle, that frustration, to God, and let God help you deal with it. Let God be your healer.

But understand that when God helps you, God won't just make you better, God will make you perfect. And understand that with a perfect and pure heart, you will be a wonderful servant for God, helping him relieve others of their burdens, too.

Amen.

1-25-15: Whales and Lions

Jonah 3: 1-10 (NRSV)

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Mark 1: 14-20 (NIV)

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

I was really excited when I looked at what our Old Testament reading would be for today, and saw that it was from Jonah. I also need to give you the disclaimer, before I get into what I have for you today, that my family's been watching a lot of Disney this week, and so my thoughts are heavily influenced by that--but you'll see what I mean in a minute.

The lectionary tells us to read a few verses from the third chapter of Jonah, but I think we should back up to the beginning, because it's a very short book (only 4 chapters) and a very good story.

Jonah's story is also one of our Church's most beloved Sunday School stories. Because of that, a lot of us kind of vaguely know what happens, but I also think that when we assume we know a particular Bible story really well, we tend to overlook some of the deeper meaning.

We don't know a ton about who Jonah was. We know his dad's name was Amittai, and we know he was a Hebrew. That's about it. Why, out of all the Hebrew men, God picked Jonah to deliver his message, we don't know. We just know God does exactly that. God tells Jonah, go to Nineveh and preach against the bad things they've been doing over there.

And Jonah decides he's not interested in answering God's call, and he flees, and runs in the opposite direction by taking a boat headed to Tarshish.

And God doesn't take no for an answer, so he goes after Jonah. He creates a huge storm in the sea that Jonah's traveling through, and nearly capsizes the boat Jonah's on. The captain of the boat pleads with everyone on board to pray to their god for safety. But the other men on board decide to cast lots to figure out whose fault the storm is, and then the truth comes out, because the lot falls on Jonah. Jonah confesses that the storm is his fault, because he ran away from God, and he tells the other men to toss him overboard to save themselves. The other men are reluctant to do that because they don't want to hurt Jonah, but when they realize they have no choice they throw him out of the boat. And then the most famous moment of this story happens, and God sends a big fish to swallow Jonah so he doesn't drown in the sea.

The fish spits Jonah out in Nineveh. He does what God told him to do in the first place, and warns the people of Nineveh that God will destroy their city because they've been bad. The Ninevites panic and decide to radically repent, to fast and dress everyone in sackcloth--adults, children, and even the animals.

God sees how dramatically the Ninevites changed their act, and decides not to punish them because they've obviously learned their lesson. And Jonah has to learn, in more ways than one, that God's in charge and what he says goes.

But let's back up a few steps. Let's back up to the famous, even amusing part of this story that everyone remembers: the big fish.

Because this story isn't about the Ninevites. The Ninevites are one of many, many groups of people that develop an appreciation for what it means to fear the Lord, and turn and find salvation. It's not because of what changes within them that our ancestors in the faith decided this story was so important that it needed to be written down and remembered. The reason why we reread, and retell, and cherish this story is because of what changes within Jonah.

Now, Jonah was a bit impatient and pouty, but those aren't the traits God wanted to change about Jonah, at least not yet. Rather what needed to change about him was his ability to figure out that God needed him, and to act.

A lot of us have trouble with this. Sometimes we're just not really listening and we miss God's call. Sometimes we don't get the message quite right. And sometimes, we'll hear what God wants from us loud and clear and we'll ignore him.

We all have moments where we make the mistake Jonah did. But here's what we can learn from him: when God really needs us to go do his work, God's going to make sure it happens, so we can either go the easy route and just obey God, or we can go the hard route and get eaten by a fish.

Yet, by fleeing Jonah implicitly raises an important question: why does he have to be the one to do God's work? Why can't God just go find somebody else?

Well, for the Jonah within each of us, I have your answer. Remember a minute ago when I said I've been watching a little too much Disney this week? One of the Disney movies I've been watching is The Lion King.

Now The Lion King was a super big deal when I was in grade school, and pretty much every kid in the free world saw it. But if you didn't have a kid of the early '90s dragging you to the theater to go see this movie, it's pretty much Hamlet but with lions. Mufasa is king of the jungle, but his manipulative younger brother Scar wants to be king. He takes his brother's life, and manages to convince Mufasa's young son, Simba, that his father's death was his own fault. Simba flees the kingdom, and Scar takes the throne. Turns out Scar makes a terrible king, and he manages to destroy the jungle's delicate ecosystem. Everyone is about to starve, so one of the hunting lionesses goes out in search of help, and finds none other than Simba, all grown up. The lioness tries to convince Simba that he has to go back and save his kingdom, but, like Jonah, Simba doesn't want to help, he wants to run from his calling.

It takes a wise baboon named Rafiki to change Simba's mind. Rafiki finds Simba in hiding and tells him that his father isn't really dead--that Simba can see him when he looks at his own reflection. When Simba doesn't get it, Rafiki explains: he lives in you. When Simba finally understands, he realizes that because he is all that's left of his father, only he can rescue his kingdom.

But where do we fit into any of that?

When God asks a lot of us it's really tempting to react like Jonah and run in the opposite direction. And it can be tempting to question why we have to be the ones to help God's people and restore God's Kingdom. Why us?

Because God the Father lives in us. The only way the world will ever see God is if they see God through us. And it's our responsibility, as God's children, to reflect God's image to a world that needs to see it.

Like the disciples Simon, Andrew, James, and John that Jesus calls in this morning's Gospel story, it's not our place to question why God has called us. It's simply our job to put down our nets and follow Jesus, no matter where he takes us.

Amen.

1-18-15: What Kind of Disciple Are You?

What Kind of Disciple are You?

1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (NIV)

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

John 1: 35-51 (NIV)

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

What kind of disciple are you?

This week we're hearing several "call" stories--stories about how five different people came from whatever they were doing before to ministering to God. We hear about five pretty different personalities, and five different ways of approaching God. We can learn a lot about ourselves and our own ministries in our Church when we think about who we can identify with in these Biblical stories. So, today, I invite you to just consider: do any of these disciples remind you of yourself?

First, we meet:

The "Look Over There!" Disciple: Andrew

If you're like Andrew, you didn't find your way to Jesus by yourself. But you didn't need a lot of convincing, either. You just needed a nudge from someone wise enough to point you in Jesus' direction.

John the Baptist had just announced to anyone who would listen to him that his cousin was coming, that his cousin would redeem the people, and that everyone should get ready to make way for him. Seems pretty clear, at least to those of us who have the benefit of knowing how this story ends. But it wasn't enough to get Andrew's attention. He just didn't get it.

John the Baptist picks up on this and gives Andrew a playful nudge: Hey! Look over there! It's the Lamb of God!

That almost sounds like what you would do to get a child's attention--Look! Something shiny! But, if you're like Andrew, you're still young at heart, and, after all, Jesus did tell us: Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭17‬ NIV)

It doesn't offend Jesus that Andrew needed JTB to nudge him along, and it doesn't set Andrew back at all. The first thing he does is talk to Jesus, and ask to see where he's been staying. The next thing he does is go tell his brother all about the man he just met. Which brings us to the next kind of disciple:

The Disciple who was Invited: Simon Peter

If you've ever been invited to visit someone's church, you're at least a little bit like Peter. If you found your way to Jesus, either through this church, or through prayer, or through some other spiritual practice, because someone encouraged you to try out what they've stumbled upon, then you're at least a little bit like Peter.

And, like Peter, you may have had no idea what you were saying "yes" to when you accepted that invitation, whenever and however it happened. Peter decided to tag along with his brother Andrew, and the first thing thing Jesus did was change his name to Cephas!

None of us really know what will come from a life of following Christ, and it takes a child-like ability to open your heart and trust another person completely to be a disciple. As you may know if you've spent a fair amount of time reading the Gospels, Peter ends up taking on a lot of responsibility, and becomes one of the most important leaders of the early Church--all because he accepted his brother's invitation to go check out someone he just met. If you've ever found yourself fully immersed in something that you only tried because a friend was into it, you might be like Peter.

The Follower: Philip

Then there's our friend Philip. Jesus found him and said, Hey, come with me, and he did. No questions asked, no hesitation, not even a moment's thought. He followed Jesus because he just didn't see any reason not to.

I think a lot of us who were raised in the Church all our lives have moments when we can identify with Philip. If you're like me, you might have gone to church every Sunday for years without ever putting a ton of thought into why you were going--I went because my mom said, Hey, get up, it's time for church. It wasn't until I was much older that I started to think about my faith, and my commitment to God, and what gifts I was bringing to my ministry. Yet, those years where I just followed, those years where my Mom said go and I went, were huge in laying a foundation for a lifetime of walking with God. I learned so much because I was so open-minded and curious. I had no reservations, no doubts, no qualms, do there was nothing standing in my way as I started to learn what it meant to be a Christian.

No matter what age you are, if you can have that child-like trust, where Jesus says go and you go, you might be like Philip.

The Skeptic: Nathaneal

And then there's Nathaneal. Like Peter, Nathaneal comes to Jesus because someone invited him: Philip. But he doesn't respond to that invitation with an eager an open mind. He's not curious, or intrigued, or amazed, or mystified when Philip tells him that he's found the one Moses himself said would come one day. Nathaneal's not any of those things--he's skeptical. He doesn't respond to Philip's invitation by saying, really, the Messiah! I want to meet him right now! Rather, he says, Jesus of Nazareth? When was the last time anything good came out of Nazareth?

If you've ever questioned God, if you've ever had any doubts about your faith, then you might be like Nathaneal. If you've ever been skeptical, if you don't like believing things at face value without some proof, you might be like Nathaneal.

Even skepticism, which so often gets cast in a negative light, is an important quality in a child-like faith. If you've ever taken care of a child then you know they don't always just do what you say because you said so. They push back. They say, Why? What for? God doesn't get offended when we ask him those kinds of questions. The truth is that if you're asking God questions, even really skeptical ones, then you're investing a lot in learning more about him. Asking questions and being real about our doubts and disbelief is an important part of how we grow as disciples.

More than that, if you've ever wondered how we're all supposed to radically put aside our differences and all get along here, you might be a little like Nathaneal. If you've ever wondered how we're supposed to put aside our reservations about each other's backgrounds and work together, you might be like Nathaneal. Being a faithful disciple means embracing even the person from the wrong side of the tracks, and learning how to love our neighbor.

The Child: Samuel

We've talked about how Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaneal all showed traits of a child-like faith in answering Jesus' call to join him in his ministry. But, the only person we hear about this morning who perfectly demonstrates having the faith of a child is the actual child, Samuel.

Samuel's mom, Hannah, promised in exchange for being able to have a baby boy that she would give that baby over to God and have him raised in the Temple in Jerusalem. So Samuel has lived his whole life in the Temple, being mentored by Eli. But, ironically, even though Samuel has been raised in the Temple, he doesn't know who God is.

So if you ever had a hard time getting the message when God was trying to tell you something, you might be a little like Samuel. And if you ever needed help learning how to talk to God, you might be like Samuel. Actually, I think that makes us all a little like Samuel. But, the hallmark of Samuel's child-like faith is the eager curiosity that makes him completely open to hear whatever God has to say to him.

As far as our Old Testament reading is concerned, this morning the lectionary leaves us on a cliffhanger. The last thing we read is Samuel responding to God Speak, for your servant is listening, and we don't hear what happens next. We don't actually get to hear what God says to Samuel. Of course, all you have to do is go read the next few verses and you'll know exactly what God says to Samuel, but that's not the point.

The real point is that, a lot of times, this is what it feels like when God calls us: we make ourselves available to hear God's Word, and then we just listen. We don't always get an immediate answer from God when we say Speak, for your servant is listening. We don't always get to hear right away what God wants from us. Answering God's call means a lot of waiting, not knowing at all what comes next.

But, at the end of the day, no matter which of these disciples you might be able to relate to, know this: the one thing they all have in common is when they were called to service they all said yes. However God calls us to serve, even if it's a big mystery that slowly unfolds before us, the kind of disciple we all need to be is the kind who serves with the faith of a child.

Amen.

1-11-15: The Peaceable Kingdom

The Peaceable Kingdom

Mark 1: 4-11 (NIV)

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

In all honesty, this sermon didn't finally start to come together until late in this week. I really had no idea what direction I wanted to go with my sermon this week, so I turned to my family and a few of my seminary friends and posed this really open-ended question: if you could hear your pastor preach about anything, what would you most want to hear a sermon about? The first responses I got were from my Dad and my brother-in-law, who essentially both said that if they could hear a sermon about anything right now, they would want to hear a sermon about racism, and how we as a people can get past it.

Well then. If that's not the most daunting thing anyone's ever asked of my preaching, I'm not sure what is, but here we go:

In even tackling a topic like that one I'm standing on the shoulders of the greatest preachers our world has ever known, starting with Jesus himself, who certainly had a lot to say about the race tensions and xenophobia of his time. I stand on the shoulders of the father of United Methodism, John Wesley, who lived when slavery was still legal both in his native England and in the American colonies, and was thoroughly disgusted by it. He encouraged his congregants and lay preachers to seek an abolition to slavery, and social holiness, reaching to the margins of society and not stopping until everyone lived in justice.

I could go on all morning naming great preachers from history who fought against racism and the social injustices that come from it. Walter Rauschenbusch, Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King. And those names are just a drop in the bucket.

Yet, in preaching on a topic like racism I have to face an incredible irony: despite how many of our forefathers and -mothers in the faith have preached for peace among the races, our Church is nonetheless deeply divided along the color lines. It's a sad part of our history that we just can't seem to get past, a wound for which there is seemingly no salve. In fact, our own denomination suffered a fracture along the color line in the late eighteenth century that we have never recovered from. Have you ever heard of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church? The AME Church was founded by Richard Allen in 1787, when he got fed up with the racism he experienced at his home church, St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Although welcome to worship at that church, Allen and all of his fellow African-American congregants were forced to sit in a separate section of pews, segregated from the white parishioners. Allen formed the AME Church, establishing a community that kept the beloved Methodist traditions but that treated African Americans with dignity. And although we can now say, over 200 years later, that the UMC works alongside the AME as partners in ministry, we never healed from that schism, and because we couldn't get over our prejudice then, we're not whole today.

It's tempting to want to say, Oh, get over it, all that stuff's in the past. Slavery's been illegal for 150 years, segregation's gone, our churches ordain black, Asian, and Hispanic ministers right alongside white ministers. There's special scholarship money set aside to ensure racial minorities get a chance to go to college. Affirmative Action has been helping the same minorities get on the ground running in the workforce. Hey, we even have an African American President! There's no such thing as racism anymore, right? Racism's dead, right?

Wrong. Wrong, and this is where I say that all of us with light skin need to check our white privilege.

It's a lot easier to point out racism and call it what it is when you're looking for overt, obnoxious, explicit acts of racism. A disgruntled Caucasian person that yells out racial slurs any time he sees a person of color? Sure, that's racism. A school that will only admit white students? Sure, that's racism. A group of people with white hoods and burning crosses that target racial minorities for acts of violence? That's racism. And I don't see stuff like that going on around me, so racism must be a thing of the past, right?

No. And don't get me wrong, we've come a long way since all of those things were commonplace. But if you ever hear someone tell you, like I did a moment ago, to "check your white privilege", and you don't know what they're getting at, it's this:

Oftentimes in our society it's not in those outlandish moments that we see racism rear its ugly head. Those things still happen, but much, much, more often, racism takes the form of an implicit, underlying, oppressive, systemic current in the river that light-skinned people don't need to notice because we're safe on our cruise ship. That is to say, we don't notice it because it doesn't affect our daily lives. We're protected from it. We're privileged to have light skin in a society that favors light skinned people.

We don't have to worry that we won't fit in, that wherever we go there won't be people who look like us. We don't have to worry that if we dress a certain way, or act a certain way, or say the wrong thing to the wrong person that people will assume we're thugs, or gang members, or trouble makers. We don't have to worry about being profiled by law enforcement, or being watched a little more closely because we look suspicious or conspicuous. Nobody questions whether we belong in this country, or whether we're here legally. We don't need to feel outnumbered and intimidated. We don't need to feel like we need to prove ourselves more, or that we need to work a little harder to achieve the same thing as a lighter-skinned person. Even if we face prejudice for other reasons, even if we're disadvantaged in other ways, even today in 2015, it's still much easier to thrive in this society if you're white.

But let's get right to the heart of what's really going on in our country right now. Because there was a reason why, when I posed this question of what you'd like to hear a sermon about, racism was the first thing that both my Dad and my brother-in-law thought of. Because my Dad and my brother-in-law are two pretty different people with two pretty different world views. But they both watch the news.

And if you watch the news, too, then you know exactly why now is the time that maybe we as a people of faith need to talk about race more than ever.

Because there's so much going on that we don't know what to think. Was George Zimmerman justified in fighting Trayvon Martin, to the point of taking his life, because he thought he looked suspicious? Was Officer Darren Wilson justified in fatally shooting Michael Brown for stealing, challenging him, and evading arrest? Were several officers of the NYPD justified in using lethal force to apprehend Eric Garner? In the media whirlwind that has ensued, amid the protests, amid the mounting distrust between law enforcement and civilians, amid the angry voices shouting "black lives matter" and "police lives matter", we've seen enough chaos to make us repeat Garner's now-infamous last words, I can't breathe.

In recent years it's become popular to have an almost-radical reaction to racism and say things like Well, I'm not racist. I don't even see race. I don't care what color you are. I'm color blind. Everyone is exactly the same to me.

Not so fast. No offense if any of you think this way, or if any of you have ever said something like that. It's a very good thing when people say things like this because they want so badly for our world to start moving past these racial tensions and divisions. The intention is good, but that's not the way to end racism.

Because we're not all the same. We're magnificently different. And if you act like you're color blind and all people are just gray you fail to see the incredible beauty and richness that each unique race and ethnicity brings to our human family. You should care what race someone belongs to, it's a big part of what makes them who they are.

But I think about this famous painting called "The Peaceable Kingdom". In this painting you see lots of different kinds of animals--cows, lions, leopards, sheep, bears, tigers--and even some people. And even though you really wouldn't expect all these different animals to get along, they do. And it's not because they've glossed over their differences. They're all perfectly proud to be the animals they are, and they've attained a state of harmony with each other.

If we could achieve a peaceable human kingdom, one where we celebrate our individual heritages and yet learn how to coexist and work together, that would be the end of racism. The problem is that it's not possible for us to get there on our own.

We need Jesus to achieve that kind of peace. We need something that only Jesus can give us.

In this morning's Gospel passage, we hear about Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan. Mark tells us that even though Jesus' cousin John was baptizing lots of people, this baptism was like nothing anyone had ever witnessed before. Mark tells us that in the moment that Jesus received John's baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. And then God said to him, You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. John the Baptist proclaims that all who receive Jesus' baptism are baptized not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.

Our world thirsts for something that only Jesus can give us. By living in a world that has received Jesus, we have received the Holy Spirit on this earth, descending upon our whole human family like a dove.

What does that mean, like a dove? Remember the story in Genesis about Noah and the ark? Noah wanted to know if it was safe to get out of the ark. He wanted to know if the flood was over, if the violence and death and loss of the great flood was over. So he sent a dove out of the ark. And when the dove came back with an olive leaf, he knew the world was at peace again.

The dove is a symbol of peace. Jesus has brought us the Holy Spirit, which descends upon us like a dove and brings us peace.

Well, ok then, Pastor Natalie, that's all well and good, but if this world has really received the peace of Christ, then why do we still see all this tension, and fighting, and prejudice? It's because there's two ways that evil persists in our world: there's people who do evil things, and then there's people who witness the evil around them and do nothing to stop it. Or, from a faith-based standpoint, there's two types of sin: sin by commission, and sin by omission.

It's not enough for us to just play nice and mind our own business. It's not good enough for us to say, Well, I'm nice to everyone, I don't treat anyone any different than anyone else, I'm not racist. That's an excellent step in the right direction, but you're only halfway there.

In order for us to ever see a world where people live in harmony, in order for us to ever see a world where everyone is treated with dignity, in order for us to ever get past racism, we need to speak up for what's right. And, more than anything, those of us who have light skin need to check our white privilege and stop taking the easy path of ignoring the things that don't directly affect us, because whether we realize it in the moment or not, racism hurts everyone. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

A world without racism is a world where everyone is nurtured, and everyone has a chance to thrive. In a world without racism, we don't gloss over our differences, and we do more than just tolerate each other. In a world that's over racism, in a world where racism is dead, we embrace our differences. We acknowledge that we all receive the same baptism from Jesus, we all receive the same Holy Spirit, and we all have a special place in the Peaceable Kingdom of God.

Amen.